It turns out that Ruud van Nistelrooy was right after all. A Manchester United star plays for the first time in 17 months.

Since Ruud van Nistelrooy was Manchester United’s caretaker manager for two weeks, he had a good look at the club before Ruben Amorim took over on Monday.

In a good sign for new Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim, Tyrell Malacia played for the first time in 17 months.

That was the last game the Dutch fullback played for United in the 2022–23 Premier League season. It was a 2-1 win over Fulham at Old Trafford. After a month, he did play for the Netherlands in a Nations League game, but he has had a terrible time with injuries since then.

Malacia had surgery on a knee injury a month after playing for the Netherlands. But because of problems after the surgery, he had to have a second procedure that stopped him from working for a long time.

When he came back to training in September, his teammates treated him like a hero. Ruud van Nistelrooy, the interim manager, said last week that the Dutchman was finally getting close to coming back.

“Right now Tyrell is the farthest along on the road to recovery. He’s been a part of team training for a couple of weeks, full-on team training with no limits,” he said. He should plan his game time, maybe with the Under-21s. We demand to see.”

Now we know that Van Nistelrooy was right; Malacia started for United’s Under-21s on their trip to Huddersfield for the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. The 25-year-old played with United’s young players as they fought to get out of Group F.

He played the whole first half of the 4-1 loss before being taken off. Before halftime, Victor Musa scored an equaliser three minutes after Ben Wiles put Huddersfield ahead.

In the 23rd minute, Wiles set up a goal that put the Terriers back ahead. At the near post, Rhys Healey scored from the 25-year-old’s cross, giving the home team an early lead they would not give up.

At the start of the 90th minute, Huddersfield’s lead grew, and Wiles was once again very important. He passed the ball to David Kasumu, who then scored past United custodian Dermot Mee.

To make the score even better, Tom Lees scored in the seventh minute of extra time. Malacia’s return will be good for Amorim, who lost Lisandro Martinez to illness and had to pull him out of the Argentina team.

Amorim started working at his new club on Monday. The first thing he had to do was fire Van Nistelrooy. United said in a statement that the Dutchman was leaving.

“Ruud van Nistelrooy has left Manchester United, that much we can say.” “Ruud came back in the summer and has been in charge of the team as interim head coach for the last four games,” it said.

Rud is and always will be a hero at Manchester United. We appreciate what he has done for the club and how he has gone about his job during his time there. At Old Trafford, he will always be very welcome.