Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez has suffered another cruel injury.
Lisandro Martinez was stretchered off against Crystal Palace after sustaining a knee injury, with it instantly apparent it was a serious problem.
Martinez has suffered an ACL injury that is expected to keep him out for the remainder of the calendar year 2025.
Martinez’s teammates have wished him their best. It comes amid a stretch of form where he had been thriving under Ruben Amorim, scoring goals against Liverpool and Fulham.
Last season Martinez missed key games with a succession of injuries, along with a broken metatarsal in his first season that saw him miss the FA Cup Final that year. Let’s delve into the defender’s injury history.
- READ MORE: Who is Lisandro Martinez? Step inside the life of Manchester United’s tenacious Argentine
Lisandro Martinez injury history
April 2023: Metatarsal injury injury causes Martinez to miss 12 matches.
Lisandro Martinez’s injury woes began almost exactly a year ago when the defender suffered a broken metatarsal in Manchester United’s 2-2 home draw against Sevilla.
United had been leading the tie 2-0 at the time, going on to lose 5-2 on aggregate.
The injury ruled Martinez out for the remainder of the season, before he returned for pre-season 2023.
He also missed playing time last season due to extra recovery time from the World Cup.
September 2023: Foot injury and abortive return requires operation, 22 matches missed
Martinez suffered a foot injury in the defeat at Arsenal and was substituted early, with the game level. He travelled with Argentina on international duty but did not play.
He subsequently started for Manchester United in defeats to Brighton and Bayern Munich and played poorly, clearly not fully fit.
It was then revealed he would require an operation on his injured foot and did not play again until January 2024.
February 2024: MCL knee injury, 9 matches missed
Lisandro Martinez looked to be back to his best, before going down in a collision during a win over West Ham at Old Trafford.
It looked like he had torn his ACL, so it was a relief when it turned out to be just his MCL, a far shorter recovery time.
After flying away with Argentina, Martinez made his return during Manchester United’s 1-1 draw at Brentford.
April 2024: Martinez suffers calf injury, 6 games missed
Martinez has suffered a calf injury during training and spent a month on the sidelines.
He returned in time to play the FA Cup Final, with Manchester United beating Manchester City 2-1 at Wembley.
February 2025: Martinez suffers ACL injury, games missed TBD
Just as Martinez’s luck was beginning to turn, an injury-free 2024/25 season to this point has been cut short in an instant.
Martinez will miss substantial game time in the league and cup competitions, along with the start of the 2025/26 campaign.
Total games missed for Manchester United to date: 49 games and counting
Not including the games he is set to miss subsequent to his ACL injury, Martinez has already been inactive for 49 Manchester United games during the past calendar year alone.
That is a staggering number, and the club can no longer count on him. While there are other centre-backs who need replacing due to age, United need a viable alternative to Martinez who can be trusted to stay fit.
Lisandro Martinez injury history for Ajax
There were no red flags over Lisandro Martinez’s injury history at Ajax which indicated this would be problematic at Manchester United.
He had one spell out injured in which he missed 10 games in 2021/22 with a muscle injury, but there was no pattern or subsequent succession of injuries.
Is it just bad luck at Manchester United? Is it the physicality of the Premier League which is pushing him to a new limit? Or is he being mishandled by Manchester United’s staff? Or all of the above.
Whichever way you look at it, Martinez’s woes are a great shame, because he is a top class centre-back when fully fit, who really adds something different to United as a team, and we hope he can get back to contributing, without having to rush.
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