Axel Tuanzebe left Manchester United in 2023 and is now reportedly seeking £1million in damages from his former club over allegations of medical negligence involving a chronic back injury
Ex-Manchester United defender Axel Tuanzebe is reportedly seeking £1million in damages from his former club for allegedly harming his career. Tuanzebe, who now plays for Burnley, claims United are to blame for medical issues which he says continue to impact his career.
The 27-year-old made 37 first-team appearances for United after coming through the club’s academy. He left at the end of the 2022/23 season upon the expiration of his contract and, following a two-year spell with Ipswich, joined Burnley in the summer.
It emerged in July that Tuanzebe was filing a lawsuit against United for alleged “clinical negligence”. The Congolese international has struggled with injuries throughout his career and Sky News has now seen details of the allegations.
Tuanzebe is reportedly alleging that United failed to treat an injury “promptly” and “appropriately”, leaving him with more serious long-term problems. He claims he still cannot play “without restriction or impediment” due to the impact of the original injury.
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The lawsuit has now reportedly been lodged at the High Court in London and says Tuanzebe “expects to recover damages in excess of £1,000,000”. United refused to comment when contacted by Sky News.
The case centres around stress fractures at the back of the spine, which Tuanzebe first picked up in January 2020 and which had allegedly become chronic by July 2022.
The lawsuit argues: “Appropriate treatment plans would, on the balance of probabilities, have resulted in the claimant avoiding the pain and discomfort set out below and would have resulted in him being able to play professional football at elite level without restriction or impediment. As it is, although he continues to play at an elite level, this has impacted his career and earnings.”
It further states: “It is the claimant’s case that the defendant [United] negligently failed to properly investigate the claimant’s pars fractures, failed to rest the claimant and failed to refer him to a specialist sports spinal surgeon.
“As a result, the claimant’s symptoms significantly progressed to bilateral grade 4 fractures, and he developed a left-sided chronic spinal fracture. Had the claimant been appropriately rested, his left-sided pars fracture would not have developed into a chronic condition and the right-sided fracture would have been avoided altogether.”
Tuanzebe alleges he has been in “significant pain and discomfort” since July 2022. His case is that his employers “failed to refer him to a specialist sports spinal surgeon” in January 2020 when the stress fracture first occurred.
The defender spent 17 years at United, having first joined the club as an eight-year-old. He came through the ranks in the academy, playing 38 times for the under-21s while being capped at youth level by England before later choosing to represent the country of his birth, DR Congo.
Tuanzebe has made seven appearances in the Premier League and Carabao Cup for Burnley this season. After shaking off an injury, which saw him miss Burnley’s 3-2 defeat by United in August, he has started the last five league games for Scott Parker’s side.