Lisandro Martinez could make miraculous injury return at Man United as new timeline shared

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Lisandro Martinez could provide a huge injury boost for Manchester United as we head into the 2025/26 season.

With less than a month to go until the start of the 2025/26 Premier League campaign, Manchester United are lucky they don’t have too many long-term injury concerns.

Lisandro Martinez suffered an ACL injury back in February which ruled him out for the rest of the season.

Because of the severity of the injury, Martinez wasn’t expected back until 2026, but it seems United’s World Cup-winning star could yet make an early return.

Lisandro Martinez could return to fitness this summer

After missing the second half of last season, Martinez returned to Carrington this summer to continue his injury rehab and fans claimed the Argentine “felt like a new signing”.

Ruben Amorim recently named the 32-man travelling squad for the US tour and Lisandro Martinez made the cut despite still going through his recovery process.

United have four friendlies remaining this summer, and it seems extremely unlikely that Martinez will be able to play a part in any of them.

However, Manchester Evening News report that Martinez’s recovery is going well and the 27-year-old defender could make a return for the first game of the season.

United face Arsenal on the opening weekend, with the Gunners travelling to Old Trafford for the first fixture. Amorim could be boosted by having Martinez, who was signed for £46m, back in his squad.

Lisandro Martinez has followed in Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s footsteps

Back in 2017, United lost star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to an ACL injury, but the Swede worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to beat his recovery timeline.

At 36 years old, Ibrahimovic suffered his injury in April but returned seven months later to face Newcastle in the Premier League.

Usually the timeline for an ACL injury spans between 9-12 months, and Ibrahimovic celebrated his return by saying “lions don’t recover like humans”, as per Sky Sports.

Well, it seems Martinez might also be a lion as he is set to match Ibrahimovic’s recovery time from such a severe injury.

READ MORE: Lisandro Martinez makes Ruben Amorim prediction after ‘unacceptable’ Premier League finish, ‘I believe he will…’

If Martinez does feature against Arsenal in August, it would mean that he would have taken just over six months to recover from his injury – which required surgery.

Amorim wants commitment and hard work from his players, and Martinez is showing it in bucketloads.