Manchester United have been accused in a High Court lawsuit of harming former academy defender Axel Tuanzebe’s career by failing to treat a spinal injury “promptly” and “appropriately”, leaving him with more serious long-term problems, according to court documents seen by Sky News.
The 27-year-old, now at Burnley, claims clinical negligence and expects to recover damages in excess of £1,000,000. Tuanzebe says United’s handling of the injury means he can no longer play “without restriction or impediment”, affecting his career and earnings. He left United in 2023 after 17 years, later spending two seasons at Ipswich Town before signing for Burnley in June.
The case focuses on pars fractures — stress fractures at the back of the spine to which footballers can be vulnerable. The lawsuit alleges Tuanzebe sustained a left-sided pars fracture in January 2020, which became chronic by July 2022, and that he then developed a right-sided pars fracture. It contends that if United had investigated and treated the injury properly, including rest and referral to a specialist sports spinal surgeon, he would have avoided the progression to bilateral grade 4 fractures and the chronic left-sided fracture.
According to the claim, MRI scans taken after a hamstring injury in a December 2019 League Cup match against Colchester showed a suspected pars fracture. The lawsuit says United failed to properly investigate the pars fractures, failed to rest him, and failed to refer him to a specialist. It argues that appropriate treatment “would, on the balance of probabilities, have resulted in the claimant avoiding the pain and discomfort set out below and would have resulted in him being able to play professional football at elite level without restriction or impediment.”
The suit alleges that a specialist sports spinal surgeon would have advised at least 12 weeks’ rest in January 2020. Instead, Tuanzebe was back playing by March 2020 in the Premier League 2 development competition and returned to first-team action in October 2020 in the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain, where then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer praised him as “a tremendous defender, a great leader” and predicted he would be a top player.
In December 2020 Tuanzebe reported hamstring pain after sprinting; the claim says the lower spine was not imaged then. By allowing him to train and play from February–March 2020 and subsequently, the lawsuit says United caused him to suffer more serious symptoms than if he had been diagnosed promptly and rested. It alleges an appropriate treatment plan was not implemented until April 2023.
While on loan at Napoli in January 2022, Tuanzebe reported left-sided lower back pain and was sent for scans by the Italian club. United’s senior club doctor and head of sports medicine and science at the time, Dr Steve McNally — who left United in December 2022 to join the PGMOL after 16 years at the club — is accused of indicating no urgency for Tuanzebe to return to Manchester for examination. The lawsuit alleges Dr McNally told Tuanzebe it was “most likely” disc irritation or a posture issue that “usually resolves with physio” rather than a stress fracture.
The claim says United “failed to properly assess, record or attempt to treat the claimant’s fracture in the acute phase” from January 2020 to January 2022, a period during which further regular medical examinations and rest from training and playing were required. Napoli’s club doctor reportedly described a CT scan as showing a potential stress fracture — “chronic incomplete lysis of the isthmus of L5 with intact superior cortical profile” — while Dr McNally is said to have noted similar appearances on a 2017 CT and discounted it as the cause of current pain.
Following a United referral, Tuanzebe was recommended pain-relief injections in March 2022. Despite reporting pain in June 2022, he participated in United’s pre-season tour to Thailand in July but then requested to return to England for treatment. Further MRI and CT scans in August 2022 documented a stress fracture. He returned to full training in January 2023 and joined Stoke on loan until the end of that season, but ongoing discomfort limited him to five appearances. United released him instead of triggering a one-year contract extension.
The particulars of claim argue that by permitting Tuanzebe to return to training and to engage in an intense strength, conditioning and running programme after 17 August 2022, United caused him to suffer more serious symptoms than he would have had the injury been diagnosed and treated appropriately with rest. The particulars were filed after being signed by Tuanzebe on October 27. United declined to comment.