Ant’s return
MISSING FORWARD WHO SKIPPED TRAINING DUE TO BIRTH OF HIS CHILD HITS BACK AT MOURINHO SAYING ‘FAMILY COMES FIRST’
ANTHONY Martial has revealed he will return to Manchester today following the birth of his second child.
The United forward took to social media to thank fans for messages after the birth of his baby, named Swan.
Martial insisted ‘family will always come first’ after he missed United training yesterday.
“Thank you all for your posts,” Martial posted on his personal Twitter account. “My little Swan is fine, for the mom it was harder but thanks to God she’s better now. Sorry but my family will always come first... Back tomorrow in Manchester.” The 22-year-old is set to be disciplined by the club after he failed to report for first-team training in Manchester yesterday morning.
Martial left the club’s training camp in America eight days ago with permission but failed to return for United’s remaining pre-season matches in the United States.
The club did expect the French forward to return to Carrington despite continued transfer speculation, but when Mourinho was asked about Martial’s future following the win over Real Madrid on Tuesday night, he suggested club press officer Karen Shotbolt speak on his behalf. “Anthony Martial? Is better for Karen to answer if she wants to answer,” Mourinho said when he was asked whether Martial would link up with his teammates. She replied: “We’re here to talk about the game.”
Martial was criticised by Mourinho last week when the Portuguese insisted the former Monaco man ‘should be here’ to participate in the latter part of United’s five-game pre-season tour of the United States. He said: “Anthony Martial, he had the baby and after the baby was born, beautiful baby, full of health thank God, he should be here but he is not here.”