Manchester United defender Tyrell Malacia has endured plenty of hardship during his lengthy injury lay-off but his team-mates, including Casemiro, have been looking out for him
Tyrell Malacia has confirmed that Casemiro gave him his FA Cup winners medal during his difficult 17-month injury lay-off.
The Dutch defender, 25, has spent more than a year on the sidelines through injury and ended up missing the entire 2023/24 campaign, with his most recent first-team appearance for Manchester United coming on the final day of the 2022/23 season.
But there is finally light at the end of the tunnel for Malacia, who made a welcome return to action in midweek when he played 45 minutes for United’s Under-21s against Huddersfield Town in the EFL Trophy.
While he was back on the pitch on Tuesday night, Malacia had a watching brief when United beat Manchester City in last season’s FA Cup final back in May. He was reluctant to join his team-mates in heading up the Wembley steps to lift the trophy, though, until Casemiro intervened.
Speaking in a new interview with The Athletic, Malacia revealed: “I was like, ‘I’m staying down here and you guys just enjoy it, then I’ll see you in the dressing room’. [Casemiro] was like, ‘Nah, you have to go up there as well’. And if someone with that kind of experience tells you that, you’re listening.”
He went to add that his team-mates were all of the same opinion, saying: “They said, ‘At the end of the day, you’re still part of the team’. I’ve been in a dressing room the whole season and seen everything. They know how hard I’ve been working every day to come back to the team and everything, so they said you deserve it as much as we do.”
It was reported at the time that Casemiro had, in fact, given his winners medal to the injured defender, although this was denied.
Join the debate! How impressed were you with Malacia before his injury lay-off? Let us know here.
But Malacia also went on to confirm that the story was true. He quipped: “Like I said before: if he gives you that, you just listen!”
Malacia’s lengthy lay-off prompted a number of wild conspiracy theories on social media. He insists he paid no attention to such speculation as he was too busy rehabbing.
“No, nothing was true. I’ve just been doing my rehab. Especially when I was in Holland, I was close to my family — so just training, family, sleeping; training, family, sleeping. The only thing I’ve done.”
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