Manchester United centre-back was missing from the Red Devils’ matchday squad to face Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.
Manager Erik ten Hag confirmed in his pre-match interview that the Argentine had suffered an injury as 35-year-old Johnny Evans made his first start for the club since his return to Old Trafford.
Evans put in a great performance and United managed to win the game 1-0 but the injury to Martinez comes as a huge concern for all those associated with the club. It seems as though the 25-year-old picked up an injury during the week.
It is not clear whether he picked up the injury during the club’s midweek Champions League clash with Bayern Munich or in training.
It is also being reported that the defender has been playing with a slight injury concern ever since United’s game against Arsenal at the start of September. It looks as though he has been struggling with the same foot injury till now.
“He’s injured,” said a deflated ten Hag. “Another one. So Licha had an issue, and he recovered from that. But, still, he needs some build-up.”
Martinez suffered an Achilles injury at the end of last season and many fans were worried that this could again be the same injury. Ten Hag dismissed these rumours but it does look as though the defender has been picking up many small foot injuries ever since the major injury.
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This will be a worry for Ten Hag and his staff who will be hoping to keep the World Cup winner fit as much as possible as he has become an important part of their squad ever since arriving from Ajax last summer.
His usual defensive partner Raphael Varane has also struggled to stay fit for a consistent period of time in all of his United career and ten Hag surely cannot afford to have his main centre-back pairing be injury prone.
A positive update for United was that Varane had returned from injury against the Clarets at the weekend but he was only deemed fit enough to start on the bench.
New signing Sofyan Amrabat also recovered from his injury to make his debut for the Red Devils but he came on to replace left-back Sergio Reguillon, who seemed to have pulled his hamstring.
United already had Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia out injured and now it looks as though the man they signed on loan to fill in for the pair has also picked up an injury.
The Mancunian club are faced with a double-header against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford, first in the Carabao Cup and then in the league, to round off all their fixtures in September.
