Not just Sancho: Another Man Utd star banned from dressing room

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 18 Apr 2024 13:31 BST
• 4 min read

Earlier this season, Jadon Sancho was banned from the Manchester United dressing which ultimately led to his departure on loan back to Borussia Dortmund for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign.

The England winger has disappointed at Old Trafford since his big-money move from BVB and this season has been involved in various disciplinary issues.

His alleged lack of workrate in training and lack of professionalism led to a ban from the senior dressing room by manager Erik ten Hag, who ordered Sancho to train with the Man Utd youth squads.

It turns out Sancho isn't alone in this fate, as Bastian Schweinsteiger recently revealed that he was sensationally banned from the United dressing room by Jose Mourinho without an explanation.

"It was 2016 and I was with the German national team, we went far in the competition [Euros] reaching the semi-finals, so I stepped in a little later [at United] and the team were in the US for a pre-season tour," said the World Cup winner on The Overlap.

"When I arrived on the first day, I trained with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and thought it was great, a player who has the vision and is amazing to play with.

"The next day, on my birthday, when I walked into Carrington, John Murtough was there and said that I wasn’t allowed to walk into the dressing room, the coach had said so. No warning, nothing. I don’t know. Someone could have told me there [on my first day of training] or explained it to me in a normal way, but OK, I went to the youth dressing room and trained with the under 16s.

"Yes, completely [kicked me out of the first team dressing room], so I had to ask him [Murtough] to bring me my boots and training gear. I asked him who I was training with, and he said there was the under-16 team, so I went and trained with the under-16s.

“I asked him whether I could talk to the manager in the afternoon, so when I came back from training with the under 16s, where I trained so bad because I didn’t know what was going on or it was a joke, I then had a meeting with Jose Mourinho in the afternoon.

"He explained to me that he didn’t see me happy here at United because when I had my injury, I did my rehab with German doctors, spending time in Germany. Of course, I came back to United and was in contact with doctors and watched the games – I had a conversation with Louis van Gaal when he was coach, and he said to come on the weekends to United and remain in contact with the doctors, they needed me fit and there was an FA Cup final which I almost played.

"That was our agreement and I kept to it. For me, I just wanted to get healthy and wanted to be able to play – I stuck to the agreement with Louis van Gaal but obviously the board thought a little differently about that.

"It was just me [that got moved to the youth dressing room]. After that, I was training alone for at least three months with a fitness coach. I guess they wanted rid of me.

"In that moment, I was still super happy at United, I loved to wear the jersey, I loved it. I was thinking that maybe it was just a period, I will train now and keep myself fit and maybe one day they’ll change their mind. My dream was to always step back out into Old Trafford."

In the summer of 2017, Schweinsteiger left United for Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer.