Ayden Heaven was forced off in the second half of Man United’s 3-0 win at Leicester City on Sunday night.
Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim said Ayden Heaven was unable to speak after he suffered a potentially serious injury in their 3-0 win against Leicester City.
Heaven was involved in a tangle with Leicester forward Patson Daka early in the second half and required extensive attention from United and Leicester medical personnel before he was carried off on a stretcher.
Amorim spoke with United’s head of medical services, Gary O’Driscoll, after he assessed Heaven, who was not taken to hospital. The teenager left the King Power Stadium with his right foot in a protective boot. United are expected to issue an update on the severity of the 18-year-old’s injury this week.
“We will see next week,” Amorim said. “It’s hard to understand because even when he’s on the ground, he can’t speak, he doesn’t know how to explain what he’s feeling because he’s so young. It’s hard to understand what he’s feeling.”
Heaven’s substitution was the only negative on an otherwise positive evening for United, who rose from 15th to 13th in the Premier League.
United supporters optimistically sang about their chances of reaching the Europa League final and the team have quietly gone seven games unbeaten, excluding their penalty shootout loss to Fulham in the FA Cup fifth round.
In the four games since that elimination, United have drawn 1-1 with Real Sociedad and Arsenal, beaten Sociedad in their round-of-16 second leg and Leicester. “I think the performances are improving and when you have the performance and some results, because it was not all the results, you feel better,” Amorim admitted.
“You start seeing different things. I’m starting to see different things in the team, especially today, you can feel a lack of energy in some plays but you feel that the team can find the way to win games even when they are a little bit more tired, it’s a good sign for this team.”
Bruno Fernandes’ fabulous form continued with his 16th goal of the season and he tallied two assists for Rasmus Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho, who ended their personal goal droughts.
Fernandes has already played 44 times for United this season but Amorim will not entertain the prospect of resting his captain in the run-in.
“He’s a special guy in that aspect,” Amorim said, referring to Fernandes’ availability. “He is always ready, he can recover quite well.
“I don’t know the future but I’m reading what the performance department tell me, the numbers, and then what I see in the game. I always see a Bruno that is dangerous and one Bruno that can recover in every situation. So he is going to stay there.
“I already knew Bruno. What surprised me the most is the way he works every day, that was a surprise. We in Portugal see Bruno with that frustration and I was really surprised, he is a very good professional. You can understand that frustration, a surprise for me.”