Luke Shaw reveals regret over playing through injury and blames himself AND Man Utd medical team for woes
LUKE SHAW blames himself — and the Manchester United medical team — for his season-wrecking injury.
The left-back is in England’s Euros squad despite not playing since February when he suffered a hamstring problem.
Shaw first felt the injury against Aston Villa but played again at Luton seven days later and made the issue much worse.
He said: “It’s kind of everyone’s fault. Partly my fault, partly medical staff. I think everyone would admit that.
“There wasn’t too much on the scan. I didn’t train all week, then trained the day before the game.
“If the manager asks me to play, I’m never going to say no. But I shouldn’t have played.”
Shaw was on course to make the FA Cup final before suffering another hamstring injury.
The 28-year-old knows he is extremely fortunate to be included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad that flies to Germany tomorrow.
But he is targeting a return to be available from the bench in the Three Lions’ second Group C match against Denmark in Frankfurt in 11 days.
With England preparing for Sunday’s Euros opener against Serbia, frustrated Shaw has opened up on his hugely disappointing injury-hit season.
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Shaw, who scored the opener in the Euro 2020 final loss to Italy, said: “My season has been so frustrating, injury after injury.
“My first hamstring could have been avoided. That wasn’t the case, things happen and I’ve just got to move on from that.
“People have seen that there was a setback but I was actually very close to returning to team training.
“I was pushing to try and get back for the Premier League games and the Cup final and I think I pushed too hard.
“I came back too quickly and I actually ended up getting another injury in my hamstring, which was a two centimetre tear, when I was three weeks from the final.
“They said it was a six-week injury, so that’s obviously why there was that setback. Of course, I was devastated.
“At that point the Euros wasn’t my focus. My focus was fully on United.
“Every day, I was thinking about the final, thinking about the couple of games that were actually left for United that I was going to try and be involved in.
“The biggest disappointment for me was that I was missing the final.”
Shaw hit back last month at abusive fans on social media who questioned his loyalty to United.
And the 31-cap defender reiterated his point once again when he added: “Now, I have had a few people coming up to me, saying, ‘How can you not be fit for United but fit for England?’
“But the circumstances were that I did push to do everything to be fit for United.
“It’s better for me to come out and say what happened, because I think there were a lot of questions over how I could be here and not at United.
“That’s been playing on my mind a little bit.”
Shaw was not the only Red Devils’ star who was pushing to be fit for United’s surprise 2-1 FA Cup victory.
Centre-half Harry Maguire was also in a fitness race but he suffered a setback with his calf injury a few days before the Wembley showdown and failed to recover enough to be selected in Southgate’s final 26.
Yet former Southampton defender Shaw — although not fit yet — has been given that chance by Southgate, so it is hardly a surprise he is incredibly grateful.
Shaw said: “I’ve had a tough few months, really.
“But I think things are looking much more positive now and I’m feeling good. Things are looking much better than they were a few weeks ago.
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Harry Maguire
“The decision on Harry [Maguire] is totally about his physical condition and his recovery from the injury. There is no other reason as he is one of our strongest centre-backs.
“Harry has made some progress, but it’s been complicated and we wouldn’t have had him in the group stages. There were too many hurdles to get through without being clear where we might get to.
“Knowing we haven’t got a clean bill of health across the rest of the backline, we need players who are fit and ready to go from the start.
“It was a really difficult call, you know how I feel about Harry, what he’s done for England and for me as a manager. “
Jack Grealish
“I have just delivered a really difficult conversation to a lad who is devastated.
“I think the world of him as a kid.“It certainly doesn’t get any easier.
“You put yourself in the shoes of a player, a parent. You understand that for these players this is a devastating moment.
“We knew we had a couple of really difficult days coming up.”
James Maddison
“Madders [Maddison] and Jack [Grealish] would have provided us with something different as well and they’ve been tough calls.
“They’re calls we’ve gone over and over and over as a group of staff to try to be fair and to try to use the right rationale.
“We back our decisions but we recognise we could have gone a different route. The boys are big characters, fabulous team-mates and great boys to work with.
“It’s sad to have to deliver that news to them.”
Jarrad Branthwaite
“It’s a bit early for Jarrad [Branthwaite]. He has had a fabulous season, it was good to get him on the pitch the other night.
“But of course, in an ideal world, you’d like that balance of left-footers. For him to be in ahead of the others, I don’t think it would have been the right call at this stage.”
Jarell Quansah
“Jarell Quansah has stayed with us. He’s not had the experience of an England international at Wembley. It’ll be great for him to be us for the game.
“Hopefully we’re not needing to call anyone else in.”
“The biggest thing for me now is putting my full focus on getting back fit and helping England win the Euros.
“I’m definitely progressing much better than I think they thought I would.
“I don’t want to look too far ahead. I’m very grateful for Gareth picking me and showing the faith he has in me.
“It’s about repaying that and doing everything I can to try and get fit and try and help the team win this Euros.”
England certainly need a fit and firing Shaw at left-back, where he was a key player at the last two major tournaments, the pandemic- delayed Euro 2020 and the Qatar World Cup in 2022.
Shaw has become a leader in the dressing room.
And he also made an impression in Qatar when he revealed he has a tattoo of the Coco Pops monkey on his arm in a heartwarming tribute to his young son, Reign.
England were knocked out in the World Cup quarter-finals by France and if they are to go further in Germany, there must be a clear improvement on Friday’s 1-0 loss to Iceland.
Shaw added: “Gareth made that very clear in the changing room.
“I’m not going to repeat what was said but we know we need to be better.
“The mentality needs to be better, attitude, performance — everything.
“It’s been a tough couple of days in camp, with the decisions over squad selection. It’s never an easy one to deal with.
“I’m not saying that had a massive effect on the Iceland result but it could have made a little difference. We know we need to be better.
“This could have been the best thing to happen to us.
“It made us realise going to Germany is not going to be an easy ride.
“It’s going to be very, very hard and it’s going to need a lot of determination from the team to do that.”
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