Former Manchester United star Ashley Young has made a frank personal admission following his decision to retire from professional football.
United spell
Young spent more than eight years at United, making 261 appearances. He joined United in the summer of 2011 from Aston Villa in a deal worth around £17m.
He arrived as a dynamic and goal-scoring winger but over the years, developed into a flying full-back.
Young made his competitive debut in the 2011 Community Shield, helping the Red Devils beat Manchester City 3-2. He registered an assist.
His Premier League debut came against West Bromwich Albion, a 2-1 victory. Young contributed to both goals. He assisted Wayne Rooney and forced an own goal. His first goals for United came during the famous 8-2 thrashing of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal at Old Trafford in August 2011.
At United, Young won the Premier League, FA Cup, EFL Cup and the Europa League.
He proved a valuable asset for each of the managers who followed Sir Alex Ferguson and was entrusted with the captaincy under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Young left United in January 2020 for Inter Milan.
After leaving Inter, Young had two more spells in the Premier League with Aston Villa and Everton. He then signed for Ipswich Town on a free transfer in the summer of 2025. He made a handful of appearances for the Tractor Boys, helping them secure Premier League promotion.
Young announced his retirement a few weeks ago.
Admission
Speaking on the High Performance Podcast, Young explained that his body is breaking down.
He detailed the extent of his physical troubles, revealing that he requires hip replacement surgery.
The former United skipper said, “I went down on my hip in November and had an injection. I have always said to myself: ‘If my body is saying you need injections, there is a problem, you need to think about retiring.’ Basically I need a hip replacement, in November I was told I would need it in about 10 years time.”
“I got to January and was due to have another injection which would have got me through to the end of the season, as I was saying to the specialist ‘I know it is painful, but I want to make sure I do everything I can possibly do to help the team.’ About a week before I am about to have the injection, I go down on it in training and I am like ‘this is worse, I know it is a lot worse.’”
The 41-year-old revealed that after this episode, the specialist informed him that the issue had worsened and he had two years left to replace his knee.
“From January to the end of the season, I literally had two or three months where I couldn’t train it was that painful. I saw the specialist again and said ‘I’m not going out like this’. He said he didn’t want to give me another injection as it would weaken the area.”
“I asked him ‘are you telling me I can’t play football again, you can say it if you want, trust me if I get an opportunity to be back on the pitch, I’ll be back on the pitch.’ The last two months of the season I was training every day and he was like ‘it is not possible, you shouldn’t be training.’”
Young continued, “It would have been incredible to come onto the pitch for the last game of the season but for me to train like I did that week and for us to be promoted on the last day of the season, it was fitting.”
Young also added a Serie A winners’ medal to his collection during his spell at Milan.
Feature image Jan Kruger via Getty Images
The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading Man United news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky: @peoplesperson.bsky.social
