Manchester United’s Argentine defender Lisandro Martinez has left the national team squad impromptu in a bit to team up with new Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim. 

The 26-year-old was invited for Argentina, which faced Paraguay in their World Cup qualifiers and lost 2-1. It still has a fixture against Paraguay in the early hours of Wednesday. However, the defender was injured in the game against Leicester City, which was evaluated when he got to the national team camp.

Martinez had complaints of knock to his lower back, and near his hip that was assessed immediately on his arrival at the national team. His absence from the fixture was further pushed by his delayed flight to South America as the national team handlers chose to take precautions and not aggravate his injury.

Martinez found playing time hard to come by under Erik Ten Hag having played just eleven times in the Premier League this season but despite given a week to stay back in Argentina by Manchester United, he rather chose to return quickly team up with the new manager who resumed on Monday.

Manchester United’s next game is a fixture against Ipswich Town at Portman road and Martinez’s absence is going to put Amorim’s first game at a limitation of two fit center backs. It will be a bit of setback for the Portuguese who revealed that his first mission at Old Trafford will be to create an identity for the team.

“We know that we need time, but we have to win time. To win time is to win games. But the most important thing for me is identity. From day one, we will start with our identity. Of course, we are going to prepare for the games, but we will focus a lot on our game model. How to play, how to press, these small details. You cannot go 100 percent on every detail because it will be confusing for the players. So if I have to say one thing, my main goal, my first goal, is identity.” Amorim said.