Former Manchester United defender Phil Jones has said he was “embarrassed” by the injuries that blighted his career at Old Trafford and admits he sympathises with Mason Mount and Luke Shaw over the “terrible tough place” they are in with their recurring fitness problems at the club.

Mount and Shaw have both been out of action for United since early December due to hamstring and calf injuries respectively.

Mount, a £55 million ($71.3m) signing from Chelsea in 2022, has missed 51 first-team games for United since his arrival from Stamford Bridge, while Shaw has missed more games than he has played for the club since completing a £27 million ($35m) transfer from Southampton in 2014.

But Jones, whose 12-year United career was derailed by a succession of long-term injury problems before his retirement at the age of 31 in 2023, said he can sympathise with the challenges faced by both Mount and Shaw as they attempt to regain full fitness at the same time as being subjected social media criticism for being unavailable to coach Ruben Amorim.

“I feel so sorry for Mason and Luke,” Jones told reporters. “I know exactly what they’re feeling. For me, it was almost an embarrassed feeling because you’re at Man United, the biggest club in the world and all you want to do is play football.

“I loved playing football. I didn’t do it for any other reason, I just loved playing football like a little kid, and when you can’t do something, you have something taken away from you.

“It’s difficult to deal with. You have the fans, you have social media, so I can absolutely sympathise with them [Mount and Shaw].”

Despite being under pressure from fans to return to action — Shaw, in particular, has been criticised after playing for England at Euro 2024 despite lengthy injury problems last season — Jones said that the players should only return to action when they feel ready to do so.

“What I would say is they’ve got to come back to a state where they feel comfortable playing,” Jones said.

“Medical staff these days will always try and promote you to come back sooner, but they’ve got to feel right in themselves and feel confident that they’re ready to come back and play and compete at a high level.

“So I absolutely sympathise with them. It’s a really, really terrible tough place to be in.”