Lisandro Martinez, a defender for Manchester United, has been called up to play for Argentina but will be going back to England on Saturday.
The tough center back was a surprise addition to Lionel Scaloni’s team to play El Salvador and Costa Rica in the United States, since he hasn’t played for United in six weeks due to a knee injury he got against West Ham in February.
Martinez worked out with his Argentina teammates this week, but he has now decided to go back to England to fully prepare for United’s Premier League game against Brentford, where he hopes to make his return.
At first, United let Martinez train with the World Cup winners so that he could get more out of his recovery plan and because they knew they would have fun, high-level training sessions together.
The 26-year-old’s recovery went as planned, but he now thinks that going back to Manchester is the best thing for him as he gets ready to play with the first team again for the evening game next Saturday, March 30.
Martinez trained with a full group in Philadelphia, along with players like Enzo Fernandez of Chelsea, which he thinks helped his growth.
Like Erik ten Hag, who is the manager of Manchester United, Scaloni thinks Martinez is an important part of his team and wanted to make sure he was still a part of their plans for their last game together before the Copa America event in June.
This week, Martinez will work harder at United’s Carrington base.
Over the past few weeks, United has really missed Martinez because they have also been hurt with injuries to Harry Maguire, Jonny Evans, Luke Shaw, and Raphael Varane.
Saudi Arabian teams like Al Ittihad are still interested in the latter. In the summer, United will continue to look at possible signings like Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite, but they will have to deal with competition from Manchester City and Tottenham.