Football injury expert gives Ayden Heaven update and estimates when Man Utd defender could return after Leicester setback

A football injury expert has provided an update on Manchester United's Ayden Heaven after he was stretchered off against Leicester City on Sunday evening.

Heaven made his third appearance for United after signing from Arsenal for a fee of £1 million in the January transfer.

Injuries to the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro resulted in Heaven getting a run in the side at the heart of Ruben Amorim's backline.

But unfortunately for the young centre-back he himself was struck by injury in the 3-0 win over Leicester City. At the start of the second half, Heaven landed awkwardly during a tangle with Patson Daka and was in immediate discomfort.

A five-minute delay followed and Heaven left on a stretcher and was replaced by Toby Collyer. Sky Sports made the decision to not show replays of the incident, which happened on the 18-year-old's first ever start in the Premier League.

Ayden Heaven was stretchered off on his first Premier League start. Image: Getty

“Well, we have to evaluate during the week,” Amorim told Sky Sports afterwards.

“He's a young kid, he doesn't know how to explain what he's feeling, so it's hard for us to know something."

Details on the exact injury Heaven suffered were scarce largely due to the lack of replays but on X, @physioscout revealed new information about the centre-back's problem.

The account said it looked as though his left ankle got trapped and the most likely outcome is a lateral ankle sprain which has a maximum potential recovery time of six weeks if it is a grade three injury.

Heaven's injury was analysed by a football injury expert. Image: Getty

However, the worst scenario is a lower leg fracture which will be a minimum of six weeks if it shows up in an X-ray.

"Ayden Heaven had to come off early in the second-half for Manchester United with a lower leg injury," the account wrote, accompanied by a zoomed in image.

"Very limited replays, as the match director chose not to show any extra footage. A little bit difficult to give a full breakdown. But from the live match, it looks like the left ankle gets trapped underneath Daka's challenge.

"Usually, a less worrying mechanism, with a lateral ankle sprain being the most likely result. However, a lower leg fracture will also need to be cleared by X-Rays."

Heaven breaks his silence on injury

Though he did not post on his feed, just after 11pm Heaven left a comment on Rasmus Hojlund's post on Instagram after he found the net and ended his recent goal drought. He simply wrote: "Deserved".