After their Europa League trip to Moldova, Manchester United players and staff “were hit by an episode of suspected FOOD POISONING,” with up to 12 affected and some stars having to leave training over the weekend.
Last Thursday, Erik ten Hag’s team defeated Sheriff Tiraspol 2-0 in the Moldovan capital Chisinau with goals from Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo. After that, they flew privately back to Manchester, but some of the group started to feel ill on Friday.
Up to 12 players in the United camp were reportedly impacted, with some skipping training on Friday and others on Saturday. According to the story, United is investigating whether the passengers’ illness was brought on by something they ate in Moldova or on the flight home.
United camp hit by food poisoning wave
Since Sunday’s home Premier League match against Leeds United had to be postponed as a shortage of police officers due to the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, United remained idle over the weekend. It’s unclear how severely the illness would have impacted the Red Devils, had the game at Old Trafford taken place.
All of the impacted players were able to leave for international duty, and some of the players who missed training on Friday were able to return on Saturday. United will now look to conduct more investigation on the matter, to ensure that such a scenario doesn’t repeat itself.
After the international break, on October 2, United’s turnaround under Ten Hag, which has seen them win five of their previous six games across all competitions, will be put to the test when they take on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
The following Thursday, United will travel to Cyprus to play Omonia Nicosia in another away match in Europe. After United’s opening group game loss at home to Real Sociedad by a score of 1-0, the victory over Sheriff was the perfect answer.
New boss Erik Ten Hag has now led his side to five wins in the Red Devils’ last six games.
They are on a run of four Premier League wins on the bounce, following two embarrassing opening two games that saw a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton and 4-0 thrashing at Brentford.
However, after beating Liverpool and league leaders Arsenal more recently, United will fancy their chances at getting a result at the Etihad and will go to that fixture with much confidence, given that they have caused lots of upsets over the years.
Though City won this exact fixture by a dominant 4-1 scoreline last season, a much closer encounter is expected this time around.
