Erik ten Hag refutes notion that Anthony Martial is “constantly injured”

Manchester United’s options at striker have been a consistently discussed topic since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo in November.

After Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United, Erik ten Hag was left with only one recognisable first-team striker: Anthony Martial.

Since then, the club have brought in Dutch striker Wout Weghorst on a six-month loan deal as Ten Hag looks to plug the gap up front.

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One criticism of Martial in recent weeks is his lack of availability. Martial has already missed 15 games this season across four separate occasions, and in his pre-match press conference, Erik ten Hag was questioned on if there is a reason why he is injured so often, such as a mental problem.

“He is not constantly injured, he is playing games…” was Erik ten Hag’s instant reply.

Upon further clarification that the question was citing that “it’s two or three games and then he’s out,” Ten Hag replied simply: “So he has to work on that. In that fact I agree. He has to be more available.

“He can’t do nothing for it in that sense, it’s sometimes also bad luck,” the Dutch manager went on to explain. “But sometimes you don’t know also really the cause, what the reason behind it is. But when he is there, he’s really important for us because we play our best football when he is available.

“He has to be aware of that as well. If we want to be successful, we need him. And the first thing is he has to be available.”

In the press conference, Martial’s injury history was compared to Harry Maguire, with the question referencing that with the United club captain, he would often play through considerable pain and injury, and that he would have to “break his leg to stop him from playing”.

In reply to this, Ten Hag said: “I don’t want to set that conclusion.

“What I said is that no one is the same. I can’t see and I can’t point to a cause, what it is, because if I had, I would work on that process to get it turned around.”

Anthony Martial has scored five goals and contributed two assists in the 695 of regulation minutes he has played this season, meaning he is contributing to a goal around every 100 minutes, or just less than a one goal involvement a game, on average.

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However, it is clear that he has problems relating to his availability, being out injured for more games (15) than he has actually played in this season (13), with Ten Hag recognising that his availability needs to be increased and worked on as United enter a busy schedule in the second half of the season.