These are testing days for Jadon Sancho. Rather than playing in the World Cup for his county, the former Borussia Dortmund man is not even training with his Manchester United teammates but is instead forced to train alone. The 22-year-old winger is currently in the Netherlands, where he’s been put on a special training regime with Dutch coaches highly regarded and trusted by Manchester United boss Erik Ten Hag.Sancho hasn’t played a competitive game for nearly two months through illness and is believed to have suffered a heavy emotional blow when Gareth Southgate overlooked him for the tournament in Qatar. In the wake of the decision, The former Manchester City youngster deactivated all his social media profiles in an apparent attempt to cancel out the noise from the public and focus on his well-being.##NAJAVA_MECA_6889236##Ten Hag has spoken to the forward about his situation a few times and did not want to set a specific time of return for his troubled superstar.”I don’t think he will be back this week. We want to bring him back as quickly as possible, but I can’t give a prognosis of when that will be. Sometimes there are circumstances with fitness and mood. We got a drop of quality level, and sometimes you don’t know why or what is causing it. That is what we are doing now to try to get him back there. It is a combination of physical and mental.”United sources insist Sancho has not been axed from the squad after he missed the last week’s training camp in Spain. Ten Hag saw Sancho’s drop in performance and advised him to follow an individual training programme until his mind and body were ready to be a part of the team.Erik ten Hag has explained Jadon Sancho’s absence from #MUFC warm-weather training camp. pic.twitter.com/nHUYTZLfCn— United View (@unitedviewtv) December 13, 2022 In the days when the mental health of top athletes is no longer a taboo, it’s commendable that Ten Hag has found a way to ease the pressure on a troubled young man and give him a chance to recover and recharge. It’s a ‘reset’ for Sancho away from the intense scrutiny of playing a club with such a fervent fanbase. We can only hope Jadon will get better and return to Old Trafford with his head in the right place.
