Manchester United defender Millie Turner has been declared fully fit and will return to full training with the rest of the squad next week after recovering from a long-term neck artery issue.
Turner was indefinitely ruled out of action in January following the alarming discovery of the problem. She began treatment immediately and was quickly past the worst of it, but has spent the months since working on her careful recovery in order to return to action.
The centre-back, who has been a key starter for United ever since the squad was formed in 2018, began light training before her teammates reported for pre-season and has been consistently upping her workload over the last few weeks.
By late July, Turner was declared fully recovered by the club and could join in more and more training. Now, with three weeks to build her match fitness until the start of the WSL season, the 26-year-old can officially resume full training with no more health concerns.
“I could hear a heartbeat in my ear,” Turner said last month when speaking about her condition in public for the first time. “My speech was slurring a little bit, the heartbeat in my ear was getting a lot worse and then yeah, I just couldn’t really focus, and I thought ‘something’s not right here’.”
Turner’s return is a huge boost to United boss Marc Skinner, who is still missing Aoife Mannion for at least the next few months even though the centre-back is ahead of schedule in her ACL recovery.
United have bolstered their central defensive ranks this summer with the addition of France international Aissatou Tounkara, having often been stretched at the back last season because of the enforced absences of Turner, Mannion and Diane Caldwell, who has since left.
