Home » Phil Jones remains in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans despite injury record

Phil Jones remains in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans despite injury record

by Joe Taylor

Manchester United centre-back Phil Jones remains in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans for the season despite his woeful injury record in recent seasons.

Having not featured for the club since early January 2020 when the club faced Tranmere Rovers in the FA Cup, Jones has faced a long time out of the game with many fans probably forgetting he was still here.

In February 2019, the Englishman was given a surprise five-year contract until June 2023 with the option to extend it a further year.

Since this contract extension, Jones has not kicked on and suffered a major injury a year later that has kept him out until this date.

It has also been reported that due to featuring in zero games over the last year and a half, the centre-back is now unsellable and won’t be able to move on from the club unless someone comes in for a loan deal which seems unlikely at this stage of the transfer window.

According to the Daily Mail, the 29-year-old featured in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Tuesday vs Burnley for the final 30 minutes of the match.

This was his first appearance for the club since his injury which saw him have surgery in June 2020 and now failing to regain his fitness ahead of the 2021/22 season.

Over the next couple of weeks, the player is expected to join in with the Under-23 teams to regain his match fitness as it will not be possible in the first team considering the length of time out.

With 2 years left on his £130,000 contract, the centre-back is keen to try and crack on with his United career with Solskjaer planning to use him as one of the five centre-backs after Raphael Varane’s transfer to the club.

This will mean the club will have Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Jones, and Varane competing for the starting two centre-back positions.

The list doesn’t even include the players on loan such as Axel Tuanzebe who recently joined Aston Villa for the season and Teden Mengi who is expected to leave on loan in the upcoming days.

Many United fans will be very concerned ahead of Jones’ return with most seeing no point in keeping a £130,000-per-week player on the team who will hardly make it into the side.

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