07 February 2023 , 22:30
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Jadon Sancho is ready to return regularly for Manchester United, according to boss Erik ten Hag.
Sancho, who has not started a game for the Red Devils since October 22, is in contention to be named in Wednesday night's starting line-up against Leeds at Old Trafford. With Brazilian winger Antony out injured, Sancho is competing with 18-year-old sensation Alejandro Garnacho to start the first of two Premier League games in five days against Leeds.
Sancho was taken out of the firing line by Ten Hag after the Dutch manager deemed the 22-year-old not in the right physical or mental condition to play. The £73million forward was sent to the Netherlands to train individually and made his return as a substitute in the 2-0 EFL Cup semi-final second-leg win over Nottingham Forest a week ago.
Ten Hag said he would have brought Sancho on in Saturday's 2-1 win over Crystal Palace but for Casemiro's late red card, which forced a change of tactics. But he confirmed Sancho is contention to start on Wednesday night and said he was pleased with the progress he has made since returning to the first-team set-up.
“He's good,” Ten Hag said of the former Borussia Dortmund prodigy. “We saw last week that he came in and did really well. It was also a pity, but one of the consequences of Casemiro's sending-off is that I couldn’t bring him on because we had to make other subs.
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Jadon Sancho has only scored three goals in all competitions this season (Getty Images)“I planned to bring him on, so that was also a setback for him, but we were very happy with the win over Palace. It shows the good spirit in the team and gives the team more motivation and confidence, but it was bad in a lot of other aspects.”
Asked how long £85million signing Antony will be out, Ten Hag said: “I don’t know. I don’t think it's a long time, but we have to see how it develops in the coming days. It's in his leg, but I can’t specify.”
As well as Casemiro and Antony, United will be without Anthony Martial, Scott McTominay, Christian Eriksen and Donny van de Beek for Wednesday night's encounter. Casemiro begins a three-match ban following his red card for violent conduct, while the rest are injured.