Erik ten Hag issues Anthony Martial update as Manchester United plan striker signing

Erik ten Hag is unsure if Anthony Martial will ever play for Manchester United again as he continues his rehabilitation from injury.

The French forward has scored just once in the Premier League this season with his last appearance coming in the 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth in December. He is still side lined following groin surgery and is out of contract at the end of the campaign.

It means Martial might have already played his final game for United, not that he has been much of a miss on recent form. Martial missed 34 of United's 63 matches last season and also missed 12 of the 30 matches he was eligible for in 2021-22 before he was loaned to Sevilla.

Ten Hag was coy when quizzed on an update for Martial, but refused to blame him for their lack of attacking support throughout the season. "I don’t know. He’s still with the medical [team]. He’s out on the pitch but if he will be available I don’t know," he said. "We have scored a lot of goals lately."

When it was pointed out that United still have a minus goal difference in the Premier League this season, Ten Hag added: "So first part of the season we had a lack of goals but I think after the winter we improved a lot on that fact. I think from January on we score in every game and also lately we have scored more than one time in games.

"That is no doubt that we counted on him [Martial]. You need two strikers in a league we are in and the competitions. You need more options. You need double positioning in every position and some positions we didn’t have the choices this season. The striker position, the left full back position and that has a negative impact on the results."

Ten Hag still believes United had enough firepower in attack heading into the campaign, but their options have been depleted by injuries to both Rasmus Hojlund and Martial during the season. United have also been impacted by Marcus Rashford's drop-in form, with the England international scoring just eight goals, when he had notched 30 last season. Hojlund has already shown enough to suggest that he could go on to be a leading Premier League striker in the future, but the United manager also revealed that the plan is to sign another striker this summer.

He continued: "So last season we were even shorter and came through that season very well. So the plan was quite logical to go into this season with an extra striker which we signed. That should have been enough to cover everything.

“Need to sign a new striker? I think it would help. As I always had in this plan we constructed that we should have had enough goals. You count on goals from Rashy - last season he had 30 - you count on goals from Martial. In my first season he played very well and also in very important games he had a high impact on our performances. And then bringing in a goalscorer like Rasmus Hojlund it should have been enough goals."