Matthijs de Ligt. Remember him?
We bought him from Bayern Munich ahead of the 2024/25 season along with Noussair Mazraoui, and he became first choice at centre back, made 42 appearances and scored 2 goals in his first season, and everyone liked him.
Then, he played every single minute of the first 13 games in the 2025/26 season (plus coming on against Grimsby in the League Cup, but we don’t talk about that), finished a game against Crystal Palace on the 30th of November 2025, which we won 2-1, and we haven’t seen him since.
We were told he had developed some slight back pain after the match which would need a bit of rest, but there was no big injury announcement. In fact, Ruben Amorim specifically described it as a “small thing” at the time, so everyone was expecting de Ligt to be back in the squad after a few weeks of light duties. But a few weeks turned into 6 months, which now looks like it could turn into at least 9 months.
So what happened? What is going on with Matthijs de Ligt?
Recovery Did Not Go As Planned
After missing the game against Wolves, Amorim started to sound less certain about de Ligt, saying his injury was being assessed day by day. Crucially, he refused to suggest a return date.
This is when things started to feel off. Like something was being hidden. I’m not saying the club did it on purpose, because with hindsight we know they weren’t sure what was going on either. But the way it came across was… shady. Every time Amorim was asked about him, all we got was a generic “moving in the right direction” sort of statement. Never anything specific.
We all know what happened to Amorim soon after that, and when Carrick took over in late January, he opened up a bit more. He told us de Ligt’s recovery had been slower than expected, and had experienced some setbacks, but it was still insinuated his return wasn’t far off.
A rumoured return in March came and went with no sign of Matthijs even back in training, and eventually, Carrick admitted the club had no idea when he might be back. The back issue was frustrating everyone. It would show signs of improvement before flaring up again.
It wasn’t until May 2026 that fans got a better idea of what had been going on.
Essentially, de Ligt and the club had wanted to avoid surgery, and since it initially looked like the treatment programme was working, they continued down that route. However, the injury was responding unpredictably, looking like it was healing one week only to get worse again the next, until, eventually, they went down the surgical route they had been trying to avoid.
It was the only remaining realistic option.
When Will He Be Back?
The surgery was announced in May, ruling Matthijs de Ligt out for the rest of the season and for the World Cup.
The club said they hoped he would be back during the early stages of the 2026/27 season, which is vague, but probably deliberately so. It does suggest that he won’t miss too much of the next campaign, but then, who knows how quickly he will settle back in – assuming nothing else goes wrong of course.
However, we do have more insight into his condition now, and the club seem more open about discussing it.
Footage of Matthijs exercising has been released, and we know he is back at Carrington following an individual recovery programme. He’s still not back in full training though, and has not joined the team for pre-season.
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It is highly unlikely that we will see him in a red shirt for the start of the season, but it is rumoured that the club are hoping to have him back in the squad around Autumn, which would be September/October time. When we start seeing him training with the first team again, that will be a good sign and give us a better indication of a more specific return date.
It’s unlikely he will be rushed back into the starting eleven, though. I would expect to see him on the bench for a good number of games first, getting a handful of minutes here and there as a cautious reintroduction to competitive football.
After all, he will have been out for almost a year by that point, and the last thing we want is to ask too much of him too soon and risk causing problems all over again.