Manchester United have touched down in Oslo ahead of their pre-season opener against Leeds United - but young striker Charlie McNeill was not on the plane.
Manager Erik ten Hag is without a handful of senior players, meaning a large contingent of youngsters have headed away. Diogo Dalot, Bruno Fernandes, Christian Eriksen and Marcus Rashford will all join up at a later date, given their international exploits over the summer. United face Leeds on Wednesday afternoon in the first of eight friendlies.
The likes of Alvaro Fernandez, Rhys Bennett, Dan Gore, Hannibal Mejbri, Shola Shoretire and Amad are all part of the travelling party, but McNeill is not. The 19-year-old was expected to feature in pre-season, after his loan spell with League Two side Newport County last campaign.
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McNeill - a boyhood supporter of the club - made his first team debut for the Reds in September 2022. He got a run out against Real Sociedad in the Europa League, before securing a move to Newport in January. McNeill netted twice in 20 appearances, with this summer now an opportunity to prove himself to Ten Hag and the rest of the coaching staff.
United are short of centre-forwards, but McNeill's opportunity will seemingly have to wait for now. His name is not included in the 26-man squad to face Leeds. And with United having landed in Norway on Tuesday, McNeill took to Instagram to post a story of him training solo outdoors - captioned with a timer emoji.
The £750,000 signing from Manchester City, in 2020, will have benefitted greatly from his loan spell in the eyes of Newport boss Graham Coughlan.
"Charlie's had a real positive impact since he's come into the football club," Coughlan told the Manchester Evening News in April. "The football is totally different. The football he plays at Man United, the facilities, the way they play, it's really really different to League Two.
"So it's a great learning curve for him, the physical side of the game as well, it's something that he's getting to grips with. It's been a really good loan for ourselves, and we hope Charlie and Manchester United see it that way as well."
He will just have to bide his time to prove it.
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