Manchester United wonderkid Shea Lacey made his return to action on Saturday. The 17-year-old has endured a nightmare 14 months with constant injury issues.

Lacey, who missed most of last season after tearing a muscle in his thigh, was back for a brief period at the start of the 2024/25 campaign. He played a handful of matches, including scoring a brace against Tottenham in the Premier League Cup, before suffering another brutal blow.

He had not featured since the end of October, up until coming off the bench for United's Under 18s against Liverpool on Saturday. Having hinted last weekend that he was close to a return - posting "not long" on his X, formerly known as Twitter - there was hope that Lacey might be back to face the Reds. And the teenager replaced James Bailey for the final 19 minutes at Kirkby Academy.

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In an

, Lacey reacted to returning to action for United's U18s. Alongside an image of him being back on the grass, Lacey wrote in a caption: "Finally back out there today."

Harry Amass was among those to comment on Lacey's post and wrote: "My brother," alongside a love heart emoji. Elyh Harrison, Samuel Lusale and Sekou Kone also left heartwarming messages to Lacey.

His brother Paddy Lacey, a professional boxer and a semi-professional footballer, commented on Shea's difficult time with injuries in a post last week. "Been through hell the past 14 months," Paddy tweeted. "Watch him fly now," he added, alongside an oncoming fist emoji, a smiling face with sunglasses emoji and a blue love heart emoji, before adding, "proud of u little bro." Fans flocked to the comments section of Paddy's post to remind him how talented Shea is and how he has a huge future at United.

At the back end of last season, Erik ten Hag promoted Lacey, who was 16 at the time, to first-team training. He was pictured being put through his paces alongside Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho - two of United's most recent academy successes. Marcus Rashford was another, though he is now on loan at Aston Villa.

It was reported in August 2023 that former boss Ten Hag had held a one-to-one meeting with Lacey following a string of impressive performances for the U18s. He had been compared to Phil Foden and Lionel Messi after scoring a 'world-class' goal during a Premier League North game against Wolves.