De Ligt has sat out of United’s last 12 games (Picture: Getty/Metro)
As Manchester United enter a crucial phase of the season, the persistent absence of Matthijs de Ligt is a growing concern.
It has been over two months since his last appearance for the club, playing the full 90 minutes in the victory away to Crystal Palace on 30 November.
After missing the following game against West Ham United, Ruben Amorim optimistically predicted: ‘For Matta, it is a small thing. I expect to have Matthijs [back] next game.’
Those comments were made on 4 December. A week later, ahead of a game against Bournemouth, Amorim revealed it was a back issue causing problems for his centre-half. ‘I think he has something in his back. I don’t know for sure. He finished the game against Crystal Palace, but sometimes he feels pain, and we have to be careful with that.’
After weeks of radio silence, Michael Carrick revealed at the end of January the defender is still a number of weeks away. On Thursday, there was another update of sorts that provided no indication of when he will return. ‘He is is working his way back,’ Carrick told reporters ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Tottenham.
While Bruno Fernandes will surely be crowned so by the end of the season, the former Ajax starlet had a very strong case for being United’s player of the season until injury struck. Despite sitting out of the last 12 games, no other United player has won more aerial duels than the Dutchman this season, playing every minute of every Premier League game prior to being sidelined.
With Carrick switching to system built on four at the back, having the club’s best centre-half available for that transition would have been ideal.
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De Ligt has not played since the win at Crystal Palace (Picture: Getty)
Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez are the manager’s first-choice pairing and with no timeline for de Ligt’s return, they could remain in place at the heart of defence for the rest of the season.
United have not disclosed any details behind the injury but back problems can be problematic. Arsenal lost William Saliba to such an injury in March 2023, ruling him out of the final three months of the season in a blow that was most responsible for the Gunners’ title bid derailing.
There is no suggestion de Ligt is struggling with a similar issue – details on the Dutchman are scarce but by their nature, back injuries are complex.
Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, suggests there could be a number of possible issues at play, each with their own ‘complications and timelines’.
United hope to have de Ligt back in training soon (Picture: Getty)
‘They are always complex, or they have the potential to be very complex,’ Smith told Metro. ‘We don’t know what this one is, we don’t know if it is a muscular issue, a neural issue or an articular (joint) issue. Each would come with its own set of complications and timelines. They are all different.
‘The weight of your entire body goes through your back, you can’t run around, you can’t twist and turn, you can’t bend down, you can’t kick if it’s a problem for you. So for a a high performing athlete, it is obviously a very important component.
‘It sounds like it may have been a little bit more serious than was initially communicated. Or it has taken longer to work through, they thought it was something smaller and it has played out a little longer than expected. We don’t know what the diagnosis is so it is hard to estimate what that means but we can hope he is over the worst of it.’
Training with back issues can be very problematic depending on the severity if the issue. For any player in any position, the physical demands on your back are huge and until the issue is resolved, they can require significant periods of recovery.
De Ligt was ever-present in the team before injury struck (Picture: Getty)
‘You can have simple back spams issues that have athletes doing certain aspects of conditioning before being introduced to team training relatively quickly,’ Smith said. ‘Things with a neural or disc involvement can be highly debilitating and require a decent amount of treatment and recovery to offload that and get normal function back.
‘Similarly, articular and joint issues can require significant periods of time too. When you think about the entire load of your body, it is a lot of pressure and stress to take. When you couple that with the pressure and stress created when you are running, jumping, landing and all that pressure is coming through one fulcrum, that can be very debilitating. It depends on the root cause of the issue.’
De Ligt falls into the category of players who you feel have been on the scene for years despite being just 26. The centre-half was just 19 when he was captaining Ajax in the Champions League semi-final and having also had spells at Juventus and Bayern Munich, has been operating within an elite environment his entire career.
De Ligt played every minute of every game before the issue struck (Picture: Getty)
Aside from a shoulder problem that ruled him out for three months in 2020, this latest issue will mark his longest spell out, 65 days and counting having missed 12 games.
No real history of back issues is a positive. Having crashed out of the FA Cup, United are also looking at a relatively light schedule for the second-half of the season with just 14 games on the calendar.
While they certainly won’t have wanted it that way, it will make the task of keeping the squad fresh and rested a little easier, perhaps ideal conditions for de Ligt when he does return.
‘More rest between games gives them the opportunity to manage those issues, depending on what it is,’ Smith said. You would say that for any injury. It simplifies things.
‘United can also probably take some solace in the fact there doesn’t appear to be a history behind it, it doesn’t appear to be a recurring thing or a repeat event so hopefully they have nipped it in the bud.’
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