Manchester United may pay for the "vet"! The former player sued for millions of dollars. He once froze Mbappe but was misdiagnosed and turned into a glass man.

Former Manchester United player Axel Tuanzebe is suing his old club for approximately £1 million because he believes that the club's relevant medical advice provided during his tenure was "medical negligence", which directly caused his current career to be unable to develop normally.

Tuanzebe filed a lawsuit in the High Court of London, England, in July this year. On October 27, they signed the "Details of Litigation" setting out the basis of the case, officially confirming the lawsuit. According to information disclosed in court, doctors confirmed that the defender is now unable to play football normally "without restriction or hindrance."

This season, the 27-year-old Congolese defender has played 7 times, including 5 in the Premier League. Mentioning the case, Tuanzebe said that he was confident of winning the lawsuit against Manchester United and expected to receive more than 1 million pounds in compensation.

Tuanzebe joined Manchester United’s youth training system when he was 8 years old. He made his first team debut in January 2017. During Solskjaer’s coaching period, he even wore the captain’s armband. However, in 2023, Tuanzebe left his home team where he had played for 17 years to seek better career development. During his time with the Red Devils, Tuanzebe was injured eight times, but each time it was a serious injury and he was absent for at least more than a month.

His two most serious injuries even resulted in season reimbursement. Among the evidence Tuanzebe submitted to the court, the main focus was on the stress fracture injury of the lower spine in January 2020. The player stated that the injury caused him significant pain and discomfort, and that the club's medical team did not handle it properly, causing the injury to worsen.

British media revealed that Tuanzebe injured his hamstring in the League Cup match against Colchester in December 2019 and underwent an MRI scan in 2020. Players are now questioning the interpretation and subsequent handling of the results, when a suspected vertebral arch fracture, known as a lumbar spine stress fracture, was detected, which athletes may suffer from repeated movements. The player and his lawyers believe United were negligent and failed to respond appropriately by failing to perform imaging tests on his lower spine.

The opinion given by professional sports spine surgeons is that if you have this problem, you need to rest for at least 12 weeks to allow the fracture to heal. Manchester United treated it as an ordinary hamstring strain and arranged for Tuanzebe to return to play in the Premier League 2 in March 2020.

In October of that year, Tuanzebe returned to the first team and played against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. He was well received for blocking Mbappe. However, this was just a blip. In December 2020, Tuanzebe told Manchester United that he had pain in his hamstring after sprinting.

Tuanzebe’s indictment reads: “Because Manchester United required Tuanzebe to participate in normal training and matches from February to March 2020 and thereafter, he suffered symptoms that were more difficult to diagnose and treat with appropriate rest than in a timely manner. In this case, it is much more serious. "

In January 2022, Tuanzebe had been rented out to Naples in Serie A. Because of persistent pain in his left waist, Naples arranged for him to undergo a scan. Tuanzebe is said to have told Manchester United's team doctor at the time that it was difficult for him to get out of bed and get into the car. However, Dr. Steve McNally, then director of sports medicine and science, said there was no need to return to Manchester United for examination and treatment.

McNally worked at Manchester United for 16 years and left in December 2022 to join the Premier League. When judging Tuanzebe's injury, McNally said that he may have an intervertebral disc problem, which can be solved through physical therapy and is not a serious problem.

McNally ruled out the possibility of a stress fracture after a CT scan, believing that there might be a sudden inflammation of the joints between the vertebrae. But Napoli's team doctor said there may be a stress fracture, and McNally responded that a CT scan in 2017 had shown the problem, so it was definitely not the source of the pain.

Not only that, in March of that year, Tuanzebe also received analgesic injection treatment. In June of the same year, Tuanzebe reported that he was still in pain, but was still arranged to travel to Thailand to participate in the pre-season. He was unable to hold on due to an injury to the right side of his lumbar spine at the same location and subsequently returned to England for treatment.

After further MRI and CT scans, the medical report in August 2022 confirmed that Tuanzebe did have a stress fracture in his spine. This problem has also evolved into a chronic disease. United finally put a proper treatment plan in place in April 2023 and he was loaned out to Stoke City, but continued discomfort meant he only made five appearances. Manchester United finally gave up on activating the one-year priority extension clause and allowed Tuanzebe to leave for free.

The lawsuit published by Sky Sports in the UK stated: "According to professional analysis, appropriate treatment could have prevented the plaintiff from pain and discomfort and ensured that he could engage in professional football at an elite level without restriction or hindrance. Today, although he still maintains a high level of competition Tuanzebe's legal team complained to the British High Court that Manchester United did not give him enough rest time to recover from the injury and did not refer him to a professional sports spine surgeon when he initially fractured. They believe that if Manchester United's team doctors choose the correct treatment plan, the left spinal problem will not worsen into a long-term chronic disease, and the right spinal problem will not recur.

Regarding this case, Manchester United officially stated that it would not comment. However, Manchester United's team doctor has been ridiculed as a "vet" for many years, and the team has repeatedly suffered injuries. One of the most famous misdiagnoses occurred in March 2024. The team doctor concluded that Brazilian midfielder Casemiro could play against Liverpool in the FA Cup. However, "Fat Tiger" felt severe pain in his hamstring, so he asked an authoritative expert from Barcelona to conduct an examination and confirmed that he had a muscle strain. Not only was he unable to participate in the Double Reds, but he also withdrew from the friendly match between Brazil and England.

Experts pointed out that although the hamstring strain is minor, it is likely to develop into a serious problem if the player continues to compete.. That season, Casemiro was sidelined for nearly three months due to a hamstring problem. That own-goal incident became a laughing stock in international football and embarrassed the Manchester United medical team. This season, after the club adjusted its medical team, Manchester United's injury situation has been greatly improved.