Manchester United duo Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford have returned to full-fledged training and featured in a practice match with other teammates at the Old Trafford on Saturday.
United’s highest scorer among current players and the most high profile player, Rashford and Pogba respectively, were sidelined due to injury before the footballing season was stopped amid the growing concerns of the situation caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.
For Pogba it was his first appearance at Old Trafford since December 26, while for Rashford it was his first since January 15.
Rashford had sustained a back injury in January but admitted in April that he was recovering well during the lockdown period.
Pogba, on the other hand, was at his usual best in United’s Premier League season opener against Chelsea before getting injured within the first 30 days. It took him nearly a month to be back against Rochdale in Carabao and Arsenal in Premier League.
But the World Cup-winner with France was sidelined again for another month. He made a solid comeback against Watford in the festive period before a surgery took him out again from which he is yet to make a comeback.
The friendly match saw the United players dividing themselves into two teams led by Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes under the watchful eye of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom government in the last week of May gave the Premier League the approval to resume the 2019-20 season on June 17 but asserted that all the health guidelines and social distancing measures be strongly adhered to.
The government, in fact, gave a green light to all forms of sports to restart from June 1 as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published the ‘Stage Three’ guidance.
The revised list of fixtures were released earlier this week that will see Aston Villa and Sheffield United taking on each other in the first Premier League match after the COVID-19 lockdown on June 17. Later in the day, Manchester City and Arsenal will also face each other.