da spicy bet： The Red Devils have been ravaged by fitness problems all season and the epidemic shows no sign of halting any time soon

da bet7： It has been the bane of Erik ten Hag's life, even more than the late goals his Manchester United side keep on giving away. Injuries, injuries and yet more injuries. Sixty this season alone, causing his players to be out for a total of 1306 days. And right now, as the season winds down, United are top of the Premier League injury table.

Ten Hag has 12 players out before Wednesday's clash against Sheffield United, affecting their chances of finishing in the top six in the Premier League and giving the afflicted a race against time to be fit for the FA Cup final. The Dutchman has been bemoaning his team's high number of injuries since the season started and has repeatedly put United's woeful run of results this season down to the fact that he has been forced to juggle his side around.

Last week, he claimed he has only been able to field his "favourite" starting XI on one occasion in nearly two seasons in charge. And his team were so depleted ahead of the FA Cup semi-final with Coventry City that he was forced to play Casemiro at centre-back.

No one can doubt that United would have had a better season had they been able to count upon all the key players who have spent more time in the treatment room than on the pitch. But perhaps it is time for Ten Hag and some of his colleagues to take ownership for United's severe injury problems.

(C)Getty ImagesNever-ending list

Injuries have haunted United from before the campaign began when Amad Diallo and Kobbie Mainoo damaged their knee and ankle, respectively, during the pre-season tour, while Tyrell Malacia underwent knee surgery in July. New signing Rasmus Hojlund, United's most expensive summer acquisition, also arrived with a back injury which prevented him from making his debut until the fourth game of the campaign, against Arsenal.

Then in the second game of the season at Tottenham, Luke Shaw injured his hamstring, ruling him out for three months. Mason Mount also injured a muscle in that game, missing the next five weeks. Shortly after United returned from the first international break, Lisandro Martinez was diagnosed with an injured metatarsal and forced to undergo a second operation, on the same foot, in five months.

Then Casemiro missed almost three months, between October and January. Mount was set to return in November and just before he did, he was ruled out for almost four months with a calf injury. Harry Maguire, too, was out for six weeks between December and January with a groin strain.

Martinez returned in late January but in just his fourth game back, he injured his knee against West Ham. Two weeks later, United suffered a double injury whammy as Shaw injured a muscle at Luton and then Hojlund also strained a muscle, missing three weeks.

AdvertisementGETTYDesperate defensive problems

Just days after returning from his knee injury in late March, Martinez injured a muscle, as did Victor Lindelof. Raphael Varane was taken off injured against Chelsea, meanwhile, and replaced by Jonny Evans, who then had to come straight back off 20 minutes later.

Anthony Martial has not been seen since early December, first being out with a mystery illness and then undergoing surgery on his groin, meaning has likely played his last game for the club. Just before the Coventry game, there was a triple whammy of setbacks as Sofyan Amrabat, Willy Kambwala and Mount were diagnosed with fresh problems.

It is an exhausting list of injuries just to read and the litany of setbacks have left the rest of the squad exhausted. The only players to not have had any notable absences are Diogo Dalot, Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes and Andre Onana.

Shaw's injury problems  and the year-long absence of Malacia has meant United have had no natural left-back in 24 out of 45 games this season. They have also had to field 12 different centre-back partnerships. And in eight matches they have had no natural centre-forward, forcing either Marcus Rashford to lead the line or Fernandes to play as a false nine.

Getty Images'Too much travelling'

Given how many injury problems United had at the start of the season, their pre-season campaign naturally came under scrutiny. United are far from alone in planning globe-trotting tours, but theirs was particularly long. They played seven friendlies in a period of 25 days, visiting Oslo, Edinburgh, New Jersey, San Diego, Houston, Las Vegas and Dublin.

The frequent plane trips and changing of scenery does not seem like ideal preparation for new campaign, and Christian Eriksen got his complaints in early when he said in late July: "There's been a lot of games and too much travelling, to be honest. We expected a tough pre-season, but for me, there's probably been too much travelling around."

Ten Hag did not organise the tour and if anyone should be to blame for the gruelling nature of the pre-season, it is the club's commercial department. Indeed, Ten Hag cancelled a commercial day during the tour to focus on training. But he is responsible for the nature of the sessions, another area which has come under plenty of scrutiny.

Getty'Toughest pre-seasons'

Rashford spoke of how punishing the Dutchman's summer camps are back in August. "Erik’s pre-season is one of the toughest, running wise, but we also do a lot of passing drills and it's a lot of mental concentration, and when you're already physically tired, it's difficult to concentrate for long periods of time," he told Gary Neville on.

"It's not actually a tough session, but when you do it in the heat of the places that we’re training in, it’s challenging. But I’ve enjoyed it, I turned up to pre-season in good shape.”

There have been unsourced reports over the course of the season of players complaining that have been worked too hard by the manager. Given how badly United have done this season, it could be argued that the players should not be protesting that they are working too hard.

Ten Hag has also dismissed suggestions he runs his players into the ground, saying earlier this month: "We need to be fit [but] we don’t train too hard. We don’t train [that often] because we recover then you go to the next game."