Seeing is believing. Anthony Martial has been pictured in a Manchester United training session.
Manager Erik ten Hag did seek to clarify reports of Anthony Martial‘s return, explaining that he only completed part of the session on Thursday.
Still, it is positive progress for a forward who has not played for Manchester United since early December and underwent a groin operation.
It’s doubtful he is in the squad to face Crystal Palace, seeing as he’s being eased back into training. Jonny Evans, who also returned, did take part in its entirety.
Erik ten Hag’s chosen quartet step up
While Kobbie Mainoo is now a regular in the Manchester United first team, there is a group of youngsters who have also been drafted in recently.
In fact, over the past month, they have begun to become regulars on the bench too, even though only one of them has made a first team appearance.
Striker Ethan Wheatley, left-back Harry Amass, right-back Habeeb Ogunneye, and centre-back Louis Jackson were all spotted at Carrington mixing in with the first team stars.
Of the quartet, only Wheatley has made his debut, recently becoming the 250th club academy graduate in the home win against Sheffield United just over a week ago.
Each of them are pushing to make the squad against Palace, and take part if called upon.
Under-21 play-off looms for Manchester United
One potential complication is theunder-21 play-off against Arsenal on Friday night, which takes place in North London.
All four featured for the under-21s on Monday, and could be called on for this game, which is sufficiently far apart from Manchester United’s Premier League game on Monday night.
That’s if Ten Hag is happy to release them, given the logistics of travelling down for the fixture, it could involved them missing Friday’s training session depending on the timings.
