Jadon Sancho could make his first Manchester United appearance in more than three months against Reading in the FA Cup on Saturday.
Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag has declared the 22-year-old has shown ‘improvement’ after returning to training last week following his first-team exile.
Ten Hag has revealed that Sancho has improved in training this week[/caption]
Ten Hag revealed in December the England international wasn’t ‘physically or mentally’ ready to play, with the forward subsequently left out of their mid-season training camp in Spain.
Instead, Sancho was sent to the Red Devils manager’s Netherlands homeland to train by himself with specially selected coaches.
After following an individual training programme for eight weeks, Sancho then rejoined his United teammates at Carrington.
Sancho hasn’t featured for United since the club’s 1-1 draw away at Chesea on October 22.
But Ten Hag hinted in his pre-match press conference on Friday that the former Borussia Dortmund star could be involved at Old Trafford.
Commenting on how his squad is shaping up, the Dutchman said: “We always have issues.
Sancho hasn’t featured for United since the draw away at Chelsea in October[/caption]
Most read in football
“But I think tomorrow we will have a strong selection for this game, we have a good squad, we can cover things.
“He [Sancho] is training with the team and we will see.
“So he’s improving, he’s making steps and we will make the decision after training.
“I said he’s on the way back, he’s making steps, he’s back in team training and we have to see when he’s ready to go back into games.”
United are preparing to face the Royals in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Saturday[/caption]
Ten Hag also alluded to Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Tyrell Malacia keeping their place in the full-back positions as he stated Diogo Dalot remains unavailable, while Luke Shaw is a doubt.
He remarked: “Dalot is definitely out, and I think also Shaw [is] a question mark.
“We have to see after this training session, after this day, if he [Shaw] is available or not.
“I think Aaron and Ty are playing magnificent at the moment. On Wednesday, they were really brilliant.
“The whole back four was brilliant on Wednesday [against Nottingham Forest]. We are happy in the back four, we have depth in the squad.
“That’s what we need when you have to cover ten games in 30 days and hopefully it will continue after that as well.”
