Two Man Utd players return early from summer break with Erik ten Hag set to meet outcast for first time

Two Manchester United players have returned for pre-season early, according to reports.

United players will return to Carrington next week, ahead of a pre-season encounter against Leeds on July 12 at the Ullevaal Stadium in Norway.

Erik ten Hag’s side will then fly to the US for the first time in five years as part of their preparations for the 2023-24 season.

However, two players have returned from the summer breaks early ahead of the upcoming campaign - Dean Henderson and Lisandro Martinez.

Henderson and Martinez’s early returns

As per the Manchester Evening News, Henderson has returned to United’s training complex early to continue his rehabilitation from injury.

The 26-year-old shot-stopper has not played since picking up a thigh strain in January, while he underwent surgery last month.

The one-cap England international could miss a considerable chunk of pre-season through injury but is expected to be fit for the start of the new campaign.

Henderson has become an outcast at United, having not reported at Carrington since May 2022. The shot-stopper was reluctant to train under Ten Hag last June while negotiations to join Nottingham Forest were in an advanced stage.

Upon securing the loan move Henderson lamented United’s “criminal” decision to backtrack on their promise of handing the United academy graduate the No.1 spot.

On his lost season at United, before his loan move to Forest, Henderson told TalkSPORT last summer: "I turned so many good loans down last summer, and they wouldn't let me go. It was frustrating. To sit there and waste 12 months is criminal really, at my age. I was fuming."

Henderson has not met Ten Hag in person, and the dialogue between the pair was reportedly limited during the last campaign.

​Meanwhile, Martinez also confirmed he is back at Carrington as he nears a recovery from a metatarsal fracture he sustained in the Europa League quarter-final draw with Sevilla in April.