Jadon Sancho remains in exile at Manchester United as he continues to train alone at the club’s Carrington training base, manager Erik ten Hag has confirmed.
Sancho has been banished to work on his own in the academy after falling out with Ten Hag by publicly challenging the manager’s reasons for dropping him from the squad at Arsenal earlier this month.
The player hasn’t given Ten Hag the apology he is demanding and remains out of Ten Hag’s first-team plans.
‘It depends on him,’ said Ten Hag after confirming that Sancho is still not training with the rest of the squad. ‘For the rest, we are preparing for Burnley and that’s our focus. He will not be in the squad.’
United were without 10 players due to injury for Wednesday’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich, and Ten Hag is waiting for updates on several of them ahead of the trip to Burnley on Saturday.
Sancho has been sent to work on his own in the academy after falling out with Erik Ten Hag
Harry Maguire, Raphael Varane, Mason Mount and Sofyan Amrabat are all close to being fit, but Ten Hag is wary about throwing them back into action too soon.
‘Harry Maguire, we will see again after training,’ added Ten Hag. ‘Varane will train, we will see. Amrabat will train, we will see and Mount as well. But they didn’t play for short or longer-term. Varane, obviously, was the shortest out.’
The United boss also urged his team to stick together as they try to weather a storm following a torrid run of four defeats in their last five games.
Asked if he is surprised by the scale of the challenge, he replied: ‘No. It’s my second year. I know it’s not always going up, you will have your gaps and you get stronger from it as long as you stay together.
‘That’s what we’re doing. The dressing-room, all the staff, coaches, medical, everyone is united and at United you fight.’
There have been concerns over dressing-room leaks about squad unrest at Old Trafford, but Ten Hag added: ‘I don’t know if it’s a leak but I know opinion, I know my players. Everyone can make suggestions, we are okay with it.’
United go to Turf Moor desperately in need of a win to lift morale. ‘At United, you have to win every game so it doesn’t change anything,’ said Ten Hag.
‘As always, it’s about how we play against Burnley. There’s no easy games, definitely not against Burnley. We know how intense they play football, we know their approach. I like the approach from them, the adventure, high intensity and dynamic in their game, so we have to play our best.’
