Manchester United Plan To Sign $47M Winger Who Is Injury Prone: Report

Manchester United are reportedly interested in signing Douglas Costa, who has been put on sale by Juventus this summer transfer window.

Having made 101 competitive appearances for the Italian side in total, Costa has netted just 10 goals, apart from being injury prone.

It is understood that Costa wants to prove himself at Juventus, a club he joined in 2017, initially on loan, following a two-year run at Bayern Munich. In 2018, the winger was signed by Juventus permanently on a four-year deal.

Soccer website Goal has claimed Juventus have decided to sell Costa at the ongoing summer market because of his physical problems. While clubs in the UAE have been interested in acquiring Costa’s services, the Brazilian attacking midfielder has been linked with Manchester United over the last few months. While Jadon Sancho remains Man Utd’s top target, it is understood the Red Devils are seeing Costa as an alternative signing if Sancho’s deal fails to go through this summer.

The Goal report has also revealed while the player’s agents have tried to approach other Premier League clubs, they were not successful because Costa has suffered injuries regularly.

Although he gets injured frequently, whenever Costa is available, he does impress with the ball. The 29-year-old winger played 29 games for Juventus in the 2019-20 season, where he scored three goals and provided seven assists. Before the coronavirus pandemic halted soccer for three months, Costa had missed 21 matches in total due to injuries. Post the pandemic break, Costa returned more determined and made an impact, but the majority of those performances came from the bench.

Costa failed to finish the previous season as he had suffered a tear in an abductor's muscle and the same issue is expected to keep the player away from the beginning of the 2020-21 campaign. Juventus are aiming at clinching their 10th consecutive Serie A title and not willing to have Costa in their squad if the player, who cost the club $47 million, cannot guarantee a full season.

Juventus are set to kickstart their 2020-21 Serie A campaign Sept. 20 by hosting Sampdoria before heading to Roma for their next match Sept. 27.