Steve Bruce has told the press “it is what it is” about Allan Saint-Maximin’s hamstring injury.
The Frenchman pulled up in the 96th minute of the match as his side beat Southampton 2-1 at home.
During the impressive victory, Saint-Maximin was firing throughout and he was clearly one of the better players on the pitch, with WhoScored’s algorithm giving him a 7.9/10 rating for his endeavours.
Furthermore, the stats also state that he attempted 17 dribbles in the match – an incredible amount. For context, the next closest was Danny Ings and Miguel Almiron with 6, so he had nearly three times as many as them.
In recent days Bruce has said that he isn’t surprised that he managed to pull his hamstring in the end purely because of the way he plays the game.
When asked about the injury in his pre-match press conference, he told The Chronicle: “He pulled his hamstring doing 38.6km per hour in the 96th minute!
“I don’t think anybody has run that fast in the Premier League before.
“What can you do in the 96th minute?
“A footballer can play or train everyday but can’t play with that intensity.
“There was no sign of Allan being fatigued.
“On Sunday we put him up the top end of the pitch alongside Andy Carroll.
“We kick ourselves but these things happen.
“He is explosive and when you play like he does it can happen.
“It is what it is.
“We have to roll up our sleeves.”
While Bruce did not reference where he got the figures from for his speed, there is no doubt that the former Nice star is a bullet.
The head coach says that there was no sign of the winger being fatigued, however, he did recently admit that if there was anyone that needed resting before that match then it would have been him, saying “the downside of playing somebody tired”.
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It’s a big loss for United who will be losing one of their key attacking outlets. While he has scored just the one goal, he has made a serious impression for a new signing, having the third-highest average rating in the entire squad.
His speed makes him a constant threat for defences and means that the opposition can never really switch off, even when they have Newcastle under the cosh, as his 4.5 dribbles per game suggests.