{"id":672706,"date":"2026-07-26T08:46:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=672706"},"modified":"2026-07-26T08:46:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T12:46:04","slug":"manchester-united-fitness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/07\/26\/manchester-united-fitness\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United Given Opening Day Premier League Fitness Boost"},"content":{"rendered":"

After some years of instability on and off the pitch, the appointment of Michael Carrick as manager immediately galvanised Manchester United<\/span><\/a> and drove the club on to finish third in the league for the 2025\/26 season. With pre-season underway for the 2026\/27 season, United have brought in new recruits and will be determined to further close the gap on Manchester City and Arsenal. Andy Mitten<\/span><\/a> has revealed a vital injury boost for Carrick\u2019s team ahead of their opening-day game away against Hull City on August 22.<\/p>\n

Manchester United Aiming for 2026\/27 Improvements<\/h2>\n

Lisandro Martinez Injury Update<\/span><\/h3>\n

The Red Devils were not in a great position when Ruben Amorim departed Old Trafford, and the interim appointment of Carrick felt like an act of desperation by the club. However, the former Manchester United and England international midfielder quickly motivated his squad. Kobbie Mainoo was out of favour under Amorim, but shone under the tutelage of Carrick. With Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans joining so far, optimism is high among the Old Trafford faithful.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More: <\/strong>Notable players to play for Manchester United and Chelsea<\/a><\/p>\n

It seems likely that United will remain active in the transfer window, as they look to further improve under Carrick. Lisandro Martinez has been a key defender for the club when fit and was enjoying a memorable run in the World Cup before he left the pitch in the final due to an injury, which immediately had everyone connected to Manchester United worried.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Lisandro Martinez Should be Fine for Opening Day Against Hull City<\/h3>\n

Among Mitten\u2019s Manchester United updates, he discusses the return of Marcus Rashford and potential targets for Carrick, including Aurelien Tchouameni.<\/p>\n

The update regarding the fitness of Martinez will be of most interest to United fans, with it being revealed that \u201cThe Red Devils\u201d are not concerned that Martinez\u2019s injury in the final is a serious one, and most importantly that he should be fine for the start of the season, which will be a huge boost for Carrick. Mathijs de Ligt could be out until the autumn after undergoing back surgery, making the availability of Martinez even more vital.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>:\u00a0<\/span>Manchester United Wonderkids Who Didn\u2019t Make It: Giuseppe Rossi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The Qualities of Lisandro Martinez<\/h3>\n

Martinez is as tenacious as they come. He\u2019s aggressive on the pitch and not afraid of the physical side of the game, often living up to his nickname of \u201cThe Butcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reads the game well and often breaks up dangerous attacks by intercepting or making a last-ditch tackle. He leads by example and is vital to the success of United, and to have him likely available for the opening-day trip to Hull City will be a huge boost for Carrick\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

IMAGO \/ News Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After some years of instability on and off the pitch, the appointment of Michael Carrick as manager immediately galvanised Manchester United and drove the club on to finish third in the league for the 2025\/26 season. With pre-season underway for the 2026\/27 season, United have brought in new recruits and will be determined to further […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":648394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,30,3],"tags":[9239,810],"class_list":["post-672706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-news","category-premier-league","tag-lisandro-martinez","tag-michael-carrick"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672706"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672711,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672706\/revisions\/672711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}