Cristiano Ronaldo absent as Manchester United players return to training

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 21 December 2021

Ronaldo absent as Man Utd players return to training

Manchester United players begin to return to training following their coronavirus outbreak, but the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho remain absent.

Manchester United players have begun to return to training following the coronavirus outbreak at the club.

A rise in positive cases saw the Red Devils forced to postpone their Premier League matches against Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion, while they also closed their Carrington training ground in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

However, they have now been able to reopen their complex ahead of their next game against Newcastle United on Monday and began to welcome players back into training on Tuesday.

The club has confirmed that players will make a staggered return, meaning that only some of them were present for the first day back.

Big names such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Jadon Sancho were among the players unaccounted for on Tuesday, while Donny van de Beek, Diogo Dalot, Dean Henderson, Phil Jones and Tom Heaton were also not pictured.

However, interim boss Ralf Rangnick was present, as were many of his first team - including Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Raphael Varane, Mason Greenwood, Luke Shaw, David de Gea, Fred, Scott McTominay, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata.

The Manchester Evening News reports that Greenwood, Shaw and Lingard left again after only 10 minutes for unknown reasons.

Man United are understood to have been hit by as many as 19 positive coronavirus cases last week, but now appear to be on the road to recovery ahead of their final two games of the year, against Newcastle and Burnley.