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The back problem that saw Kobbie Mainoo miss England’s final World Cup game is not expected to affect his pre-season plans with Manchester United.
Mainoo did not play a single minute of the Three Lions’ World Cup campaign which ended in semi-final heartbreak against Argentina.
Despite Declan Rice’s fitness issues and Jordan Henderson’s campaign ending with a broken arm after the win over Mexico, the Manchester United star remained among the subs.
England played France in a third place play-off match, beating Les Bleus in a 6-4 thriller with Thomas Tuchel making six changes that night.
Mainoo was again not involved however with the England boss revealing he had suffered a back injury.
‘He had a sharp pain in the back within the training and he was not ready to play,’ Tuchel said.
Mainoo, along with Marcus Rashford who could yet have a future at Old Trafford next season, now has three-week break before he is expected to return for pre-season duty with United.
The Athletic report Mainoo’s issue was the type of injury that typically results in a player missing just one game with it unlikely to have any impact on his pre-season plans.
The 21-year-old is expected to join up with the squad in Dublin from 10 August with United to take on Leeds United at Croke Park two days later.
United have one final pre-season game against AC Milan in Poland on 15 August before they begin their Premier League campaign against newly-promoted Hull City on 22 August.
Mainoo missed the entire first-half of the 2025-26 season after being frozen out of the first-team by Ruben Amorim but had an instrumental role to play under Michael Carrick.
He started every game he was available on from mid-January onwards, missing the defeat to Leeds in April through injury. Mainoo also played the full 90 minutes in all but one of those 16 games.
United have lost Casemiro since the end of the season with Manuel Ugarte now facing a long spell on the sidelines with a knee injury suffered during the World Cup with Uruguay.
But the club have bolstered their options in midfield with the signings of Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans from Chelsea and Aston Villa respectively.
