Manchester United suffered from probable food sickness after returning from Moldova following their 2-0 Europa League victory over FC Sheriff on Thursday night.
Manchester United not only returned from Moldova with three points but also with food poisoning. Despite putting on professional performance, the trip was not without incident. Twelve (12) of the traveling party became ill upon their return on Friday morning.
United flew directly from Chisinau in a private aircraft after the game, but they still came down with an unusual ailment, which is thought to have been caused by something they ate or by the plane itself. A few players missed the scheduled recuperation training session at Carrington on Friday, while others were still too sick to show up the next day.
Fortunately for Ten Hag, he did not have to rush to prepare for the home game against Leeds United, which was initially planned for Sunday. The game was rescheduled owing to a police shortage ahead of the Queen’s formal burial on Monday at Westminster Abbey.
It is not believed that the illness hindered any of United’s players from joining their respective national teams during the international break. Gareth Southgate’s England team includes Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw for upcoming friendlies against Italy and Germany, but Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho did not make the cut.
Ten Hag intends to use the two-week break to continue working on the training field. “It’s quite handy. We have a lot of meetings, and we need to improve the infrastructure in and around the club,” he remarked following the Sheriff’s victory.
After the break, United will have a difficult test when they travel across town to face rivals Manchester City in the derby on October 2. They will next return to the road, flying to Cyprus on October 6 to face Omonia in the Europa League.