Mason Greenwood is still suspended by Manchester United as they conduct an internal investigation into accusations of attempted rape and assault.
The 21-year-old forward saw charges dropped in February but his future at Old Trafford remains unclear.
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He was arrested and charged in January 2022 when images and videos were posted on social media.
Greenwood was also questioned on suspicion of making threats to kill but all charges were dropped by police at the beginning of February 2023.
Mason Greenwood: When did he last play?
Greenwood’s last appearance for United came in a 1-0 win over West Ham on January 22, 2022.
He has been at United since the age of six and progressed through the academy into the first-team, making his first senior start in 2019.
In total, the one-cap England international has scored 35 times for the Red Devils in 129 appearances.
Greenwood remains the holder of United’s no.11 shirt but it is not available for purchase.
The forward still has two years left remaining on his £75,000-a-week contract and has been on full pay since his initial suspension.
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Mason Greenwood: Will he play for United again?
It is yet to be decided whether Greenwood will feature for his boyhood club again.
After his charges were dropped it was revealed that he would not return to training until next season at the earliest following an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding his arrest.
In April, reports emerged that Greenwood told his friends that he’ll never play for United again and players from the women’s team have said that they would be ‘unhappy’ to see him return.
United were already said to have rejected offers from Turkish sides for his services as clubs looked to take the forward on loan.
It’s also been claimed that the Red Devils are considering sending Greenwood out on loan next season with Spain, Italy and Turkey among the forward’s likeliest options.
The latest reports allege that Ten Hag and most of his teammates would welcome him back – a decision that has ‘delighted’ him.
But the decision is out of manager Ten Hag’s hands and a conclusive decision on his status is expected to be made in the near future.
Greenwood was included on United’s retained list ahead of the 2023/24 Premier League season in Section A for players under 24.
He was spotted back in training with a private coach at a public sports centre in June 2023.
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Mason Greenwood: What has been said?
United boss Erik ten Hag has talked up the ability of Greenwood when discussing the need for another striker to help lift the goalscoring burden off top scorer Marcus Rashord.
He told The Times: “[He] showed in the past that he is capable of doing that.”
But Ten Hag went onto emphasise that Greenwood’s future at United is not a decision for him to make.
Greenwood heading out on loan is something that’s been backed by talkSPORT’s Simon Jordan.
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Jordan said: “It’s a way of giving the player an opportunity to play football and to take him out of the inevitable spotlight.
“The tragedy for this boy is that it has all played out in the public domain before he was given the opportunity to have any sort of anonymity, i.e before you are in a position to be charged with something and then when you are charged then anonymity falls away.
“He was arrested and we all got to hear the audio of some of the circumstances the allegations were built around.
“That’s all fallen away and we can question the motivations about why it has fallen away and how we got ourselves into this situation.
“We’ve got a boy who has put himself in a way of, I don’t think, the greatest of behaviours listening to those audio tapes and I also don’t think the best of behaviours when he was away with England in Reykjavik.
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“But we’ve got a very talented footballer. Often in football the talent supersedes the behaviour and I’ve never been one to suggest that’s right.
“Then you’ve got the delightful companies like Nike who will instantly run away from anything that looks like reputational damage, whilst they are quite happy to sit there having Alberto Salazar and the Oregon Project on their watch (the training group was shut down in 2019 following Salazar’s ban for doping violations).
“There’s so much hypocrisy in this world.
“Where this young man sits now is he’s no longer being charged. I argued this a while ago when we covered it about the presumption of innocence and the presumption of innocence is something we should have in real terms.
“But the court of public opinion will make its own decisions about what they heard and what they know about this young man.
“That puts him in the way of a variety of challenges. One of them is Manchester United’s perception of its image around the world and the other is what he’s going to be subjected to, by the very nature of what we know to be a very blunt, cruel and often appraisal of anything football fans can get at to try and disadvantage a player.
“With all those factors in play, I think it’s a sensible move. It’s not kicking the can down the road.”
