'Budget decision' - Manchester United make loan call on striker who has scored five goals this season

Manchester United had different reasons for recalling Joe Hugill from his loan spell with Wigan than they did for bringing Elyh Harrison back to the club from Chester FC.

18-year-old goalkeeper Harrison was considered a huge success at National League North side Chester but was considered to be playing at a level below his current ability. Upon his return to Old Trafford he has been immediately included in first-team training and is expected to stay at the club for the remainder of the campaign to provide cover in training and to play for the U21s.

It is a different situation with 21-year-old striker Hugill, who has returned to United in part due to Wigan's limited finances after a mixed spell with the League One club. Hugill scored five goals and assisted once in his 18 games at the club, but dropped down the pecking order in recent weeks.

It is understood United plan to send Hugill back out on loan this month, though there is an acceptance he might need to drop further down the pyramid to either League Two or the National League. Speaking about the decision to end his Wigan loan, Latics boss Shaun Maloney said: “It’s a budget-related decision really. I think he’s done really well here, I’ve really enjoyed working with Joe, and I think there’s even more development in Joe.

“In fairness to him, over the last 10 games or so, Dale Taylor has been in really, really good form, and I know Joe needs to play games. He was always going to leave us if Dale kept his place, which he did…although I still would have liked to have kept him. I know we’ve signed Will Goodwin, but Joe is a very different profile to him, but we can only carry two ‘9s’ at the moment. So that’s the decision…it’s nothing to do with performance, or how we trained…we can only carry two ‘9s’ and that’s the decision.”