Luke Shaw has revealed he should not have played in the Manchester United game that caused his ‘avoidable’ hamstring injury, leaving his participation at Euro 2024 in doubt.
The left back has not played since February 18 when aggravating the issue during a 2-1 win at Luton, a match in which he was asked to play by Erik ten Hag.
Shaw has since suffered a recurrence of the injury – again under United’s watch while pushing himself to get fit for the FA Cup final. He is yet to train with his England team-mates and is unlikely to make the group opener against Serbia a week on Sunday.
And the 28-year-old says that mistakes were made in the handling of the original muscle strain.
‘I felt something against Aston Villa (February 11) and came off at half time,’ said Shaw, revisiting the source of the problem.
Luke Shaw admitted that he shouldn’t have played in the game that caused his injury problem
‘It’s kind of everyone’s fault. Partly my fault, partly medical staff, I think everyone would admit that. I didn’t train the whole week. The scan came back and there wasn’t too much there. But I didn’t train all week, then trained the day before the game. If the manager asks me to play, I’m never going to say no. I shouldn’t have played.’
Shaw, who started only 12 Premier League games last season, added: ‘We all want to play football. My season has been so frustrating, injury after injury. Maybe at times, especially my first hamstring, could have been avoidable. That wasn’t the case, things happen, and I’ve just got to move on from that. The biggest thing for me now is putting my full focus on getting back fit and helping England win the Euros.’
Shaw also wanted to explain why he was able to report for duty with England after missing the FA Cup final.
He said: ’I think people have been getting confused with what’s actually happened, because nothing had ever been said. I got a few people coming up to me, saying, “How can you not be fit for United but fit for England?”.
‘But the circumstances were that I did push to do everything I can to be fit for United, and that’s been my whole season, really. In my opinion, I was pushing to try and get back for the games and the final, and I think I pushed too hard. I came back too quickly and I actually ended up getting another injury in my hamstring, which was three weeks from the final and they said it was a six-week injury, so that’s obviously why there was that setback.
The Man United left back has not played since suffering a hamstring injury against Luton
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‘I had done a little bit of team training. When you build back up, you tend to go in a little bit of team training just to get a feel of it and then you go with the conditioning coach to do different things and try and build up your fitness. It was actually when I was over there that I felt something in my hamstring. I had a scan and it was a six-week injury. I was devastated.
‘It’s better for me to come out and say what happened, because I think there was a lot of questions over how I could be here and not United. That’s been playing on my mind a little bit, because I don’t want people thinking that’s what I’m doing.’
What chance does he have of making next weekend’s game in Gelsenkirchen?
‘I would love to make the first game, I can’t lie,’ said Shaw. ‘But I don’t want to be in one of them situations and rush too quickly because, realistically, I’ve only got one chance. If I feel something, then that’s it, and I don’t want that to happen.’
Shaw watched from the stands at Wembley on Friday night as England were beaten 1-0 by Iceland. It was a poor performance and exposed weaknesses in a patched-up defence.
Gareth Southgate let as much be known in the dressing-room afterwards, as Shaw said: ‘I think we know that (defensive improvement is needed), it’s clear to see. Gareth made that very clear in the changing-room. I’m not going to repeat what was said, but we know we need to be better. The mentality needs to be better – attitude, performance, everything.
‘Everyone in the dressing-room knows we can be better. This could have been the best thing to happen to us. It made us realise that going to Germany is not going to be an easy ride. It’s going to be very, very hard and it’s going to need a lot of determination from the team.’
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