I'll see how it all plays out, but part of me thinks just pretending he had an injury would have put less pressure and create less chat than admitting he's not physically or mentally ready to play.
Nah, I don’t think so. If it gets to a point where you can’t play — which it obviously had, before the WC he was of course physically fit to play, he was reported I’ll, the odds of him having a mega flu that kept him out for three weeks are slim to none — you must take a step back and get things in order.
Rule of thumb is that doing that will take around 6 months to a year. In any organization, if it gets to this point you hope for it to be a quarter but plan for it to be 6-12 months. With medication, a super fit young kid, who knows, maybe it can go a lot faster, but I mean, he has been out for two months already right?
I also think it sends the wrong message to the kid. What do you tell him, “look we think we should lie about the issues you have because they are shameful”?
This is the first time the reporters had a chance to ask ETH question on Sancho during a normal pc before a game. Don’t think it will be much of a regular story. Sancho got no option here. When it gets to a point where he misses games, it’s not something you fight through.
And like many have said previous in the thread, this does of course have nothing to do with having a tough time at United for a year. It’s years of stress related patterns, not just being in a good place mentally. He needs help with resetting that and it takes time to develop new patterns. Get the body to react differently. You don’t do it over night.
For anyone that have experienced these type of things, there really are no if’s and but’s or grey areas. It’s (a) issues that must be given time and it’s (b) not something you can sweep under the carpet.