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Manchester United have had wretched luck with injuries this season, and there has been inquiries into the club’s medical department.
To my point, the club has had 51 individual cases of injuries or illness this season alone, which is an insane amount of injuries by March.
To put it into perspective, only 3 outfield players in Dalot, Garnacho and Bruno have avoided injury all season.
The situation worsened around December last year, so much so that the club launched an official inquiry into the medical team.
Head of sports medicine Gary O’Driscoll had to completely overhaul the medical staff to try and remedy the injuries plaguing the team, especially muscle injuries.
The idea was to add younger practitioners to the staff and make a concerted effort to have more diversity on the medical team. The general worry was that United’s approach was old-fashioned and Premier League rivals were slowly eclipsing them on that front.
This inquiry and overhaul do not seem to have bore fruit as expect considering how United have been caught in this vicious cycle where 2 players return from injury and 3 more get injured.
The latest episode of this cycle is the weekend’s euphoric F.A win against bitter rivals Liverpool.
Man United were delighted to have the trio of Maguire, Höjlund and Wan-Bissaka back but on the flip side, Casemiro dropped out with a muscle injury.
This fresh injury puts further strain on United’s medical team’s credibility, as it is the very same injury that recently kept him out of action for a couple of months.
As per Trivela, Casemiro felt something in his hamstring in training before the Liverpool game but even after several examinations by the club’s medical team, they insisted he was okay and could play against Merseyside rivals.
Case, who was in pain, decided to double-check with another doctor in Barcelona who has treated him before, and he confirmed a minor issue that would have been made worse if he played against Liverpool.
As a result, Casemiro has had to withdraw from Brazil’s squad for the upcoming friendlies, although he did travel to Brazil to meet with the squad and speak to the coaching staff.
All these injuries and such reports of misdiagnosis pile on the pressure on United’s medical department to find a permanent solution sooner rather than later.
