Report: Man Utd, Ten Hag ‘were not cleared’ to ‘publicly’ reveal Sancho mental health issues
Manchester United were not ‘cleared’ to reveal Jadon Sancho’s mental health struggles to the public last season, according to a report.
Sancho was absent for a few months in 2022/23 as he dealt with an injury, though it was later revealed that he was also struggling mentally.
The 23-year-old appeared on the bench for Manchester United’s Premier League clash at home to West Ham on October 30 but was not included in a matchday squad again until February 4.
He would have missed a lot more games for the Red Devils if not for the World Cup and after the tournament in Qatar came to an end, Erik ten Hag revealed Sancho would remain out due to ‘physical and mental’ factors.
And according to the Daily Mail, United ‘were not cleared to go public with Sancho’s fight against mental health difficulties’.
It is said that Sancho trained alone with ‘trusted’ coaches in the Netherlands following Ten Hag’s comments.
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Interestingly, the Dutch manager did not have ‘permission’ to reveal the England international was suffering mentally.
The report claims:
‘Sources close to United insist Ten Hag, who did not specifically use the term “mental health”, believed he was being supportive of Sancho in the aforementioned comments and continued to speak supportively of the player during his absence.
‘But sources close to Old Trafford feel it would have been difficult to explain the long absence as solely injury-related when that wasn’t the case, whilst Ten Hag also believes “physical and mental” fitness are linked with a requirement to be able in both to play elite level football.
‘There were also concerns that not providing an explanation would have created unnecessary speculation regarding the reasons linked to Sancho’s absence.’
Sancho and Ten Hag’s relationship is currently on the rocks. Following United’s 3-1 defeat at Arsenal on Sunday, the Dutch manager revealed the player was not in the squad after training poorly in the build-up to the fixture.
The former Borussia Dortmund winger completely refuted those claims, however.
He posted on social media on Sunday evening: “Please don’t believe everything you read!
“I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue. I have conducted myself in training very well this week.
“I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t get into, I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time which isn’t fair!”
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