Injury derailed Jose Mourinho’s golden prospect at Man United, now he hasn’t played in two years

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Manchester United’s 3-2 victory over Arsenal in 2016 will go down as a significant and memorable one as it was the infamous game in which a teenage Marcus Rashford scored twice on his Premier League debut.

Rashford had been thrown into the United team three days earlier in the Europa League win over Midtjylland, scoring twice, before repeating the feat against Arsenal.

It was also the day when United manager Louis van Gaal took a comical touchline tumble in protest at a decision that went against his team, providing another iconic Premier League moment.

So the debut of academy graduate Timothy Fosu-Mensah certainly went under the radar. And despite praise from both Van Gaal and subsequent United manager Jose Mourinho, Fosu-Mensah’s career hasn’t gone the same way as Rashford’s.

Louis Van Gaal loved him and Jose Mourinho predicted good things about Timothy Fosu-Mensah

After handing Fosu-Mensah his first start a week after his debut vs Arsenal, Louis Van Gaal praised the defender for ‘saving us three times because of his speed,’ adding that he ‘was the player who always closed the door for us.’

When Jose Mourinho took over at United, he also saw ‘great potential’ in Fosu-Mensah and promised ‘plenty of opportunities’. However, he would offer just one Premier League start to the former Ajax youngster.

He spent the 2017/18 season at Crystal Palace, before a spell at Fulham a year later was ended prematurely due to a knee ligament injury.

He would get more chances at United after recovering from that injury, but was eventually sold to Bayer Leverkusen in January 2021.

Timothy Fosu-Mensah hoped hard work would would get noticed, but failed to find new club this summer

Fosu-Mensah’s injury nightmare continued when he was ruled out for a year with another knee ligament injury shortly after joining Leverkusen. When he returned in January 2022, he was only playing for two months before a new hamstring injury kept him out for the remainder of that season.

The Dutchman, who featured three times for his country between 2017 and 2018 only featured 11 times in the 2022/23 season, and was not used at all in Leverkusen’s title-winning campaign the following year.

Without an appearance since 2023 and released by the German club in 2024, Fosu-Mensah has now gone two summers without finding a new club, and he spoke optimistically recently over resurrecting his career.

He told the PA in June: “I know I’ve been working hard and hard work won’t go unnoticed. That’s what I believe.

“If you stay at home, you do nothing and then you think ‘boom, OK, I’m going to go this club or that club’, no, that’s not how it works, that’s not my mentality. It’s definitely a fresh start and I’ve been working hard.”

The defender said he has had varying levels of interest from clubs around Europe but is yet to agree a deal to return to professional football. He will hope that changes soon as his wait for a new club goes on.