Jadon Sancho pictured at Man Utd training ground during match as exile continues

01 October 2023 , 12:27

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Jadon Sancho pictured at Man Utd training ground during match as exile continues

Jadon Sancho was pictured at Manchester United's training ground while his team-mates were being beaten by Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.

The £73million winger has been frozen out by Erik ten Hag after he publicly challenged his manager's justification for leaving him out against Arsenal several weeks ago, referring to himself as a "scapegoat". Since then he's failed to be picked and is training away from the first-team.

His exodus continued this weekend. Sancho was pictured with a young fan and fellow United player Kobbie Mainoo at Carrington in a post shared on Instagram. The England international was dressed in a tracksuit with the social media post stating that it was during an U18s game, which occurred at a similar time to the Red Devils defeat to Crystal Palace.

Sancho last played for United in late August and there appears no sign of him being recalled anytime soon. Ten Hag has continued to be quizzed on the future of the former Borussia Dortmund man. The United boss claimed any route back into the first-team depends on his player and was keen to shut down discussions around Sancho this week.

"I don't talk about personal issues and I don't talk about players who are not available,' he said before the Palace loss.

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Sancho's exodus has gone as far as him not even dining with the first-team squad, instead he's been forcing to train with the youth ranks. Several of his team-mates have urged him to say sorry to the manager, who has shown himself to be a ruthless task master.

Pressure though is ramping up on Ten Hag after he saw his side lose, yet again, to the Eagles, whom they'd only beaten in the Carabao Cup a few days previously. A 1-0 win for the visitors resigned United to successive home losses in the Premier League after Brighton had also left with three points.

It means, across all competitions, that Ten Hag has already seen his side lost five times in 11 outings, despite spending huge sums again in the summer. United were expected to build on last season's third place finish but are not in danger of losing touch at the top, but their manager has called for unity.

He said: "It's a bad start. We have to catch up and do better. This is not good enough. Of course, it's frustrating for everyone, especially the fans. It's frustrating but for us, as well, the players and for me. We have to stay together, fight together and get better and make sure we get improvement."

Samuel Meade