Erik ten Hag confirms Joshua Zirkzee is fit to make debut in Community Shield | OneFootball

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed that new signing Joshua Zirkzee is ready to play a part in the Community Shield tomorrow afternoon.

As winners of the FA Cup, United will have the chance to win the first piece of silverware of the season when they take on league winners Manchester City tomorrow afternoon at Wembley.

The Red Devils have so far brought in two new players but Zirkzee is the only one available to play tomorrow as Leny Yoro picked up a serious injury on tour and will be out for around three months.

Therefore, United fans will only potentially get to see Zirkzee in action but there was also some concern whether or not he would be involved as he only started training with the group this week.

Ten Hag revealed in an interview with Dutch channel Viaplay that the forward was not as far along in his fitness as the majority of the team, placing doubt on his availability for tomorrow.

In a recent interview however, Ten Hag affirmed that there is a good chance we will see United’s new number 11 in action tomorrow for the very first time.

Speaking to Manchester United’s official website Ten Hag was asked if he thought Zirkzee could feature and he replied, “oh yeah, I think he can and he’s really hungry to do this because he’s looking forward to (it).”

The former Ajax coach also claimed that the 23 year old is thrilled to start his Premier League and Manchester United career and is raring to go.

“He’s also very excited to come into the Premier League and to come into Manchester United.”

Ten Hag also stated that making his debut at an arena like Wembley is also a motivating factor for the former Bologna man. He said, “then on the first occasion, go to Wembley of course, highly motivated, that’s for sure.”

The United manager did reign in expectations however by claiming the player wasn’t totally match fit by reaffirming what he had said in his earlier interview by stating, “but also he is short in training and so he had a break. He trained individually and now we have had a couple of days training with the group.”

Therefore, if he starts, it would be a surprise if he got more than 60 minutes or perhaps he will come on as a second half substitute. Either way, it looks very likely we will see Zirkzee don the famous colours for the very first time tomorrow.

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