📅 October 17, 2026
Mazraoui Is Back in Training, and Carrick Hopes to Have Him Involved at Leeds
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Noussair Mazraoui is back in training, and Michael Carrick hopes to have him involved at Elland Road on Sunday. “Hopefully, we’ve got Nous back involved with us,” Carrick told club media on Friday. “He’s done a little bit of training, so he’ll be back around the group, which is a good step in the right direction for us.”
It’s not a promise he’ll start. It’s the first good news on a full-back in a while, though, and United haven’t had much of that.
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Where he’s been
Mazraoui got hurt on international duty with Morocco against Lesotho last month, and he’s missed both games since: the draw with Tottenham and the defeat in Madrid. The Evening Standard and ManUtdNews both carry Carrick’s words on his return, and Goal has the same lines from the club interview.
He wasn’t on the plane for the Champions League game, which we noted in our AtlĂ©tico preview. Carrick’s wording now is careful. “A little bit of training” means he’s close, not that he’s ready for ninety minutes in that atmosphere.
Why it matters at left-back
The timing’s useful. Patrick Dorgu is out with a hamstring injury, and Luke Shaw is still a doubt after Carrick said only “we’ll see” about him and Kobbie Mainoo on Friday, as we reported yesterday.
Sports Mole’s preview puts it plainly: Mazraoui has only been involved in small parts of training, and a late call will be made on Shaw. If neither is available, it suggests Diogo Dalot could move to left-back with Leny Yoro on the right. That’s a guess at Carrick’s thinking, not team news, but it shows how thin the options are.
ManUtdNews doesn’t expect Mazraoui to start on Sunday and thinks next week’s trip to Como is the likelier target for a bigger role. That’s the sensible read of what Carrick said.
De Ligt, slowly
Carrick was asked about Matthijs de Ligt in the same interview, and the message there was patience too. De Ligt was on the bench in Madrid, his first matchday squad since last November, as we covered in our line-ups post.
“Every training session and every day and every kind of week that goes by, being back around the group, being on the bench again,” Carrick said, per the Standard. “Back on the bench the other night, I think it was a good step for him and just a little bit of patience, a little bit of working our way through it and getting him up to speed.”
He added: “He’s had a tough few months that he’s had to work through, and credit to him for that, for being in the place that he is now. So yeah, we’re delighted to have him back involved.” Goal carries the same quotes in slightly shorter form.
So that’s two defenders edging back in the same week. Neither looks like a starter at Leeds, but a bench with Mazraoui and de Ligt on it is a lot stronger than the one Carrick took to Madrid.
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Sources: Carrick’s Mazraoui and de Ligt quotes, the Lesotho injury and the two missed games from the Evening Standard via Yahoo Sports (16 Oct 2026) and ManUtdNews (16 Oct 2026, citing ManUtd.com), with the same quotes in Goal (17 Oct 2026). Mazraoui’s limited training, the Shaw late call and the Dalot suggestion from Sports Mole (16 Oct 2026). Left out: Goal’s line that Mazraoui is back in full training (Carrick said “a little bit”), the exact nature of his injury, which only one outlet named, and Sunday’s kick-off time, which we haven’t verified from two sources.