Luke Shaw opens up on why last season was his “toughest year” in candid admission | OneFootball

Manchester United defender Luke Shaw has labelled last season the toughest yet in his career, as he spoke to club media ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Aston Villa.

Closing in on record

Shaw has played an instrumental role in the success that United have enjoyed since Michael Carrick was named interim head coach at the start of the year.

He has started every game under Carrick, proving to be a reliable presence at his natural left-back position.

The Peoples Person highlighted that Shaw is closing in on an impressive personal milestone. He is just three games away from starting every Premier League game in a single campaign, for the first time in his career.

So far this season, Shaw has played 35 games and logged a total of 2,971 minutes. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for Shaw at United.

Having endured a near career-ending leg break in 2015, he displayed remarkable determination to return from it. Since then, his Old Trafford tenure has been disrupted by injuries, causing him to miss large chunks of games while recovering.

For instance, last term, Shaw managed just 348 minutes of top-flight action. He spoke to club media and detailed why last season was the most challenging period of his career yet.

Shaw’s revelation

The 30-year-old said about injuries, “Honestly, it’s so tough. I think people just think, ‘Oh, he’s injured, he’s not bothered. He doesn’t care, he’s injured again’. But it’s not like that.”

“Last year I think was probably my toughest year. Obviously I broke my leg [in 2015] – that was completely different. But last year I just kept picking up injuries, and I just didn’t understand what was going wrong.”

“It was so hard, like, emotionally, everything. It was so tough.”

He continued, “I remember not knowing what to do. You feel like you’re letting people down. You feel like you’re letting your team down, the fans down.”

“Thankfully, this season, I feel like I’ve come on a better side with injuries. That was one of the most important things for me at the start of the season, was just making sure I was fit for the whole season.”

“It was a real tough period, but you just live and you learn. That also built me up even more, and made me more resilient. I learned a lot from it, and I’m in a much better place mentally for it now.”

Shaw insisted that he will use the lessons from that experience to help the next generation of players.

“I feel like that’s now kind of my job. You have young lads now coming in, loads of them that have so much potential coming to this club. [It’s the] biggest pressure there is in football, I think. And it’s about how you learn and, and you live with it.”

“For me, I’m grateful that I’ve been here for so long and I’ve had all them experiences, and I know how to deal with it and how to live with it. So I feel like – of course still playing – but also my job now is to give advice, and to help these young lads grow in experiences and understand the club and so they can really live it and, and enjoy it.”

Shaw and his teammates are next in action on Saturday when they go away to Sunderland.

Featured image Stu Forster via Getty Images

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