Erik ten Hag comments on Anthony Martial's happiness at Man Utd

Erik ten Hag is confident that Anthony Martial is happy at Manchester United despite his recent injury problems.

The Frenchman has been restricted to just 200 minutes of Premier League action this season, having been reintegrated into United’s squad after a loan spell at Sevilla.

Martial impressed in pre-season playing as a striker for Ten Hag but has been troubled by hamstring, Achilles and back injuries since – he has featured in just five Premier League games from a possible 16.

The 27-year-old is now back fit and led the line for United in their recent 1-0 friendly defeat to Real Betis. He is also likely to have more opportunities to impress now that Cristiano Ronaldo has departed the club following his blockbuster interview with TalkTV.

A succession of injuries can often be difficult for a player to overcome mentally, but Ten Hag is optimistic that Martial is happy with where he’s at and admitted he hopes to keep him fit from now on.

“I think he is, but he was so disappointed that he had bad luck with the injury,” Ten Hag said of Martial’s current happiness.

“In the past maybe it was something he did wrong, I don’t know, but now it was also bad luck and you come in a process from injuries and now we have to stop the process and we get him and he gets himself in a better position so that he’s fit and available. For his game and development and progress it would be great.”

Ten Hag has spoken of United’s plans to replace the departed Ronaldo with a new striker – 90min understands that Joao Felix, Goncalo Ramos and Cody Gakpo are among the players the Red Devils like – but reiterated how impressed he’s been with Martial when the Frenchman has been free from injury.

“The first challenge for him is to be available and fit which he has to be responsible for. But we have to support him in all the ways we can,” he remarked. “We have seen that when he is available he has a massive impact on our game. He has 350 minutes, four goals and two assists. That’s a really good record.”

United return to action on December 21 with a Carabao Cup fourth round clash with Burnley before returning to Premier League action against Nottingham Forest six days later.