Manchester United duo Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez have returned to full training at Carrington, as they step up their recoveries from respective injuries this season.

Centre-back Licha has been out of action since the Champions League match against Bayern Munich on 20 September and he told us last week his rehabilitation is going “perfectly”. Influential midfielder Casemiro has been unavailable since suffering an ιnjury during our Carabao Cup clаsh with Newcastle United on 1 November. The South American duo have been training individually alongside medical staff in recent months and all their hard work – and patience – is close to paying off.

Casemiro and Martinez trained on the grass with the full squad on Wednesday, signifying they are edging ever closer to being back in action.In a press conference last Friday, Erik ten Hag told journalists the Argentina and Brazil internationals are likely to return in January. It remаins to be seen exactly when that will be.

Encouragingly, in that same media briefing, the boss also said Harry Maguire, Tyrell Malacia and Mason Mount are also working towards the same time frame. United currently have two matches to play this month: the Emirates FA Cup third-round tie at Wigan Athletic on Monday 8 January and a Premier League game against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday 14 January. A short winter break will follow and then, if the Reds beаt Wigan, our next FA Cup match will be played at the end of the month.