Manchester United have been boosted by the return of midfielder Ander Herrera and forward Adnan Januzaj.
Louis van Gaal’s men prepare for their first match of 2015 away to Stokes on January 1. It was a welcomed improvement at the pre-game media briefing on Tuesday, with the 63-year-old revealing Herrera and Januzaj have resumed training after recovery from injury and illness respectively.
“Herrera has trained today for the first time with us and Januzaj has also trained two training sessions with us,” said van Gaa.
“They don’t have match rhythm [yet]. Januzaj was ill and you have to recover from your illness, not from your tiredness. Maybe it’s worse to recover from illness.”
Asked if he would have more players available for the Stoke game than he had for the game at White Hart Lane on Sunday, Van Gaal replied, “No”.
Luke Shaw made his first-team appearance since the victory at Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur. Rafael da Silva and Chris Smalling were also named in the squad for the goalless draw after injuries.
He added: “You have seen that Smalling, Shaw and Rafael Da Silva are coming back.
“These are the first signs that we already predicted two weeks ago, that the players shall come back but they are not back with 100 per cent match rhythm, and now we have to play.
“It’s a problem for me to come through this two weeks around Christmas and New Year, all these matches. That is difficult now.”
