Shaw faces battle to save United career after Williams’ rise

Left-back returns from injury for Astana game Teenager Taylor opens up about cancer trauma

Luke Shaw is fighting to rescue his Manchester United career after being told by manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that he has fallen behind teenager Brandon Williams in the pecking order.

Shaw has not played since he picked up a serious hamstring problem in August and has struggled with injuries since he made a £30 million move – then a world record for a teenager – from Southampton in the summer of 2014.

United have cancelled plans to sign another left-back in January as competition for Shaw with Solskjaer delighted at the emergence of the 19-year-old Williams.

The fact that 24-year-old Shaw, who will start against Astana in Kazakhstan today, has only made 109 appearances for United in five years counts against him and, with Williams and the rest of the first team left at home to prepare for the Premier League game against Aston Villa on Sunday, it is a test of his attitude and character.

Solskjaer does intend to improve his attacking options in the transfer window. United are expected to make a bid for Red Bull Salzburg striker Erling Haaland, and are confident they are the preferred destination for the Norwegian teenager, who has scored 27 goals already this season.

Max Taylor, meanwhile, is set to feature in his first senior game tonight as part of the youngest United side to play in Europe and has admitted that he feared his football career was over on being diagnosed with testicular cancer in October of last year.

The 19-year-old defender only returned to training a few weeks ago after an intensive course of chemotherapy, as well as surgery.

Taylor, who is adamant he wants to be known for more than his health problems, said: “We all broke down when we first got told, my mum, my stepdad and I.

“Because I’m 18 and playing, I’m in a bubble. You don’t think that any other news concerning anything other than football would come, especially something that you know is life-threatening.

“When you hear the word, it’s almost like ‘how is that possible?’ You just think worst-case scenario, which to anyone when they hear the word ‘cancer’ is will you live?”

Taylor’s strength of character has impressed everyone at United, including former manager Jose Mourinho, who was stunned by the way the teenager got on with his rehab. Solskjaer also stayed in regular contact with the player and his family and promotion to the Europa League squad was not a sympathy call.

“I always had a mindset of there’s no way I’m not going to be alive after this,” Taylor added. “But there were times where I thought ‘will I be able to play football?’ And there were times where I thought there’s no way I can get back to that.

“The message that I want to get out to everyone is it is possible – and it is possible to do more than what I’ve done after you’ve gone through such trauma.”

Having signed his first professional contract at Old Trafford in January last year, Taylor’s life was thrown into disarray when a cyst on his testicle came back after a course of antibiotics had initially cleared up the problem.

“The cyst had gone and the cancer, the lump, was actually inside the testicle,” he explained. “So, you wouldn’t have been able to feel it anyway, so it was actually a blessing. The cyst coming back was like a red flag, it showed there was something alien in my body.”

Taylor’s left testicle was removed and a biopsy showed it to be the primary cancer, but a CAT scan also revealed it had “spread through the abdomen, the lymph nodes in the abdomen and started a few specks on the lungs”.

Surgery followed and Taylor returned to training in September, making his first appearance for the under-23 side last month.

Solskjaer described the decision to take a youth team on the 6,000mile round trip to Kazakhstan as “common sense” and, on Taylor, added: “He’s an inspiration to others, there’s no fear on the pitch, he’s had real fear in his life. When you’re on the football pitch you should have no fear and it’s a chance to give him extra motivation as well.”