Manchester United interim manager Ralf Rangnick has confirmed Luke Shaw is still suffering from a horrific leg injury he endured in September 2015.
The England international, 26, suffered a double leg fracture after he was caught by a poor challenge from PSV defender Hector Moreno. He didn't play another competitive game for 11 months and wasn't a regular in United's team again until 2018-19.
Shaw was forced out of United's 1-1 draw against Leicester at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon and Rangnick has revealed his current complaint is linked to the career-threatening injury the left-back suffered nearly seven years ago.
"He had some problems even last week when he was with the England team with his old injury when he had an operation with the broken leg and this showed up today [against Leicester] and that is why we had to substitute him at half-time," said Rangnick.
Speaking in September 2018, Shaw revealed he nearly lost his leg due to the injury but insisted it was "exactly as it was before" the break. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about stopping playing," he told reporters after being recalled into the England squad.
"I had a lot of complications with my leg and that was the really hard moment for me in my career. No-one knows but I was really close to actually losing my leg. I never knew that until six months later when the doctor told me.
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"At the time, they were thinking about flying me back and if I'd have flown back, I would probably have lost my leg because of the blood clots and stuff. I've got - I don't want to talk about it too much - two scars down the side of my leg where they had to cut it open and pull them out because of how severe it was.
"But I don't really care about that any more. I feel really strong and my right leg is exactly as it was before my leg break."
Luke Shaw has struggled with injuries throughout his time at United, making just 148 Premier League appearances since joining the Manchester club from Southampton in the summer of 2014. Most of those, however, have come within the last four years.
Speaking to The Guardian about the injury in August 2016, Shaw said: "I was in shock, to be honest. The pain came later. I was just so upset because I knew I was going to be out for so long. You might have seen the picture where I had a tear coming down my face."
He added: "That night, lying in hospital, I swear to God the pain was something else. Oh God, the worst you could ever imagine... they had to open my leg to pull out all the clotted-up blood. They put me to sleep, but it didn't stop the pain when I woke up again."
Shaw continued: "I still get aches. I don’t go a day without feeling it. It’s 100% better but it’s normal, apparently, to feel it after such a bad injury. In the first three or four weeks when I started training outside it felt good, but then all of a sudden it started aching."
