Manchester United youngster Kobbie Mainoo has been picking up valuable minutes for England’s under-19s side over the international break.
The teenager played an important role as the Young Lions won their final European Championship qualifying group game against Turkey.
Kobbie Mainoo, 17, started two games and featured as a substitute in another. He featured for 88 minutes in the 2-0 win last night.
This added to important game time over the past week for the teenager, playing 204 minutes across the three games.
Kobbie Mainoo pre-season boost
The Euro under-19 finals are set to be played this summer, and this would have had a potential knock on effect for Manchester United.
The eight team finals will be held in Malta, with group stages taking place between July 3 and July 10.
The semi-finals take place on July 13 and the final on July 16. England would have be looking to go all the way, having won the tournament in 2022.
The timing of this tournament would have a knock-on impact for Kobbie Mainoo’s involvement in Manchester United’s pre-season tour, along with under-19 teammate Omari Forson.
However, crucially, England failed to qualify for the finals, missing out on topping their qualification group by a single point to Iceland.
This is helpful to Erik ten Hag, who will want to use the pre-season to take a closer look at Mainoo, who has already made in-roads to the first team.
Mainoo has already made his Manchester United first team debut, starting in the Carabao Cup and featuring as a substitute in the Premier League and FA Cup.
The full dates of United’s pre-season tour to USA are yet to be set. Last year the team flew to Australia in early July.
A fixture is set against Wrexham, with United pledging young players will feature in this game.
Playing in a tournament for England is always valuable experience for a young player, but for Kobbie Mainoo, there would have been a high price to pay – missing out on at least part of the pre-season tour with Manchester United.
Fortunately this clash has now been removed, and Mainoo is all United’s this summer.