With the 2018 FIFA World Cup in full swing, it can be say to forget that the Premier League is barely a month away and Manchester United’s stars have reported for day one of pre-season training on Wednesday.
Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Chelsea have already started preparing for the new campaign but it appears Jose Mourinho gave his players a lengthier vacation than his counterparts.
Diogo Dalot, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Chris Smalling, Luke Shaw, Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial were among the players who checked in at United’s Carrington Training Complex:
The Aon Training Complex was a hive of activity this morning…#MUFC new boy @DalotDiogo arriving first up 👀 pic.twitter.com/pbjKVItsQx
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 11, 2018
Notably, all the aforementioned players did not take part at the World Cup, so it may be a while before the likes of David de Gea (Spain), Victor Lindelof (Sweden), Fred (Brazil), Nemanja Matic (Serbia) and Marcos Rojo (Argentina) return for training.
Of course, there are plenty of Red Devils players still in contention at Russia too.
Marouane Fellaini and Romelu Lukaku may not be bringing home the World Cup for Belgium after their 1-0 loss to Paul Pogba’s France in the first semi-final, but they still have to play the third-place game to play on Saturday.
And of course, in the second semi-final between England and Croatia has a few United players in action as well.
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Phil Jones, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Ashley Young are all going to give it their all to make sure the Three Lions lift their first World Cup since 1966.
At half-time, England are leading the Croatians 1-0 thanks to Kieran Trippier’s sensational free-kick.
United open the 2018-19 Premier League season as they take on Leicester City at Old Trafford on August 10.
They do have a big pre-season, however, as they take on European giants Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, AC Milan in the summer.