{"id":695769,"date":"2026-01-14T16:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/695769\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:47:17","slug":"michael-carrick-handed-major-manchester-united-boost-in-his-first-training-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/695769\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick handed major Manchester United boost in his first training session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Carrick took charge of his first training session as Man Utd head coach on Wednesday and has already been given a significant team news boost.\"Michael<\/p>\n

Michael Carrick has taken charge of his first United training session(Image: )<\/p>\n

Manchester United welcomed back attacking duo Amad and Bryan Mbeumo on Wednesday, with the pair both taking part in Michael Carrick’s first training session as head coach, with the 44-year-old stepping up preparations for his first game in charge this weekend.<\/p>\n

Amad and Mbeumo were knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations at the quarter-final stage and have now returned to full training at Carrington and are expected to be available for Carrick’s first game, against Manchester City<\/a> on Saturday. Mbeumo’s Cameroon were beaten by the host nation, Morocco, last Friday, while Amad and the Ivory Coast were knocked out on Saturday after losing 3-2 to Egypt.<\/p>\n

It means Noussair Mazraoui is the only member of United’s AFCON trio still involved in the competition. The versatile full-back will feature for Morocco when they take on Nigeria on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Carrick and his assistant Steve Holland oversaw training on Wednesday, having had the chance to get their feet under the table on Tuesday when the players had a scheduled day off.<\/p>\n

Their first session included exciting young winger Shea Lacey, who is suspended for the visit of City after being sent off against Brighton in the FA Cup<\/a> last weekend. Darren Fletcher’s twin sons, Jack and Tyler, also continued their involvement in the first-team training squad.<\/p>\n

There was a place for 20-year-old full-back Habeeb Ogunneye, who was recalled from a loan spell at League Two outfit Newport County this week. Ogunneye made 15 appearances in League Two, but hasn’t played in that competition since a 3-0 defeat to Oldham on November 22.<\/p>\n

The return of Amad and Mbeumo is a particular bonus for Carrick, who faces a daunting start to his time in charge, with the Manchester derby at Old Trafford<\/a> this weekend, followed by a trip to Arsenal.<\/p>\n

“Coming into this club from the very start, the big games, the important games, it’s what we all live for,” said Carrick. “Some are more challenging than others, but it’s why we’re here, so we’ll go for it head-on.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully we can play a really exciting type of football, be positive and express and bring excitement. I want to be off my seat. I want to be enjoying watching the boys play. And results obviously need to come with that. I can feel my enthusiasm for it because I’m buzzing to get started and see what we can do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Carrick took charge of his first training session as Man Utd head coach on Wednesday and has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[7439,748,37199,393,4884,2465,423,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-695769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-amad-diallo","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-bryan-mbeumo","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-united-fc","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115894476096657385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}