- Lisandro Martinez will undergo further surgery early next week for his foot injury
- He will be ruled out for up to three months in a major blow from Man United
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Lisandro Martinez will undergo a second operation on his broken metatarsal on Monday after suffering a setback in his return from injury.
Manchester United announced on Friday that Martinez will be out of action for up to three months due to a recurrence of the problem that ruled him out at the end of last season.
Mailsport can reveal that the Argentine defender will undergo further surgery on the fifth metatarsal in his right foot on Monday in an attempt to cure the problem once and for all.
Martinez suffered the original injury during a Europa League match against Sevilla in April and was out for 11 weeks.
He returned early for pre-season in an attempt to regain fitness before playing on United’s pre-season tour of America and then the first four Premier League games of the season.
However, he suffered pain in the same foot in last month’s defeat at Arsenal and was forced to withdraw from the Emirates in the second half.
It is understood the former 25-year-old former Ajax defender took painkillers to play in the subsequent games against Brighton and Bayern Munich, and further tests on Thursday showed the fracture has not healed properly.
Manager Erik ten Hag said about the injury on Friday: ‘We made a good diagnosis, also in Argentina, but now it turned out that there was a problem. That’s very sad, for him and the team, because he wasn’t 100 percent fit.
“I think it was a big difference between the Licha Martinez in the last games and the Licha Martinez we saw here in the first season. He will add something to the team, make a very strong contribution to our levels and if even one player drops a level, the team performance will be lower.’