Martial apologises after confrontation with Manchester United youth player

Anthony Martial was involved in an angry confrontation with a Manchester United youth-team player during a training session last week overseen by Erik ten Hag.

After a strong tackle from Dan Gore on Martial at Carrington, the club’s training base, on Wednesday the Frenchman is thought to have retaliated but the 18-year-old refused to back down. Martial and Gore, a midfielder signed from Burnley in July, were pulled apart and the 26-year-old subsequently apologised to the youngster.

While Ten Hag informed Gore that challenging a first-team player should not occur in the session because of the risk of injury, Martial is one of only a few of the manager’s squad who are not at the Qatar World Cup finals tournament with their respective nations after Didier Deschamps did not select the forward for France’s campaign.

On Saturday Deschamps lost Karim Benzema after a training-ground injury but opted not to call up Martial, stating on Sunday that he would not choose to replace his first-choice No 9 despite being allowed to do so under Fifa rules.

This followed the head coach choosing Eintracht Frankfurt’s Randal Kolo Muani rather than Martial after Christopher Nkunku also had to withdraw from the tournament last week after also being injured in training.