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Van Gaal lists six reasons for Shaw injury

Louis van Gaal also explained why he selected Wayne Rooney to be the club's new captain © Getty Images

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Louis van Gaal has hit back at Dutch coach Raymond Verheijen's claim that his training methods were the cause of Luke Shaw's injury.

Left-back Shaw, who joined United from Southampton for £27 million, suffered a hamstring injury and will be sidelined for a month.

The 19-year-old featured in all five of United's games on their pre-season tour of the US but did not play against Valencia on Tuesday night - which was Van Gaal's first game in charge of United at Old Trafford.

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Louis van Gaal has already impressed at Old Trafford © Getty Images

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Verheijen blamed Van Gaal for Shaw's injury after he said: "The Luke Shaw case is the climax of Manchester United's predictable pre-season injury crisis due to 'too much training too soon'."

But Van Gaal has not taken the blame for the injury and has instead given six reasons as to why Shaw picked up the problem.

"We've analysed the injury. It is difficult to lay a finger on it but of course there are a lot of reasons," Van Gaal said.

"The first was the World Cup. The second is jet-lag from the USA. The third is that he has not trained enough physically to play matches.

"The fourth reason is that he didn't come fit. The fifth reason is that after travelling back we had a match on Tuesday. The sixth reason is the training - the amount of sessions. I've only done half of what I would have done with other clubs."

United begin their Premier League campaign against Swansea, with Wayne Rooney set to lead the side out at Old Trafford for the first time since being named the club's new captain.

"I've made him captain because of his attitude on the pitch and the training ground," Van Gaal said on why he selected Rooney to take over the armband from the now-departed Nemanja Vidic.

"Not so much outside the pitch, but I've told him that is important to me and he's accepted his responsibility. I've liked very much how he has trained and performed so far and how he has behaved to his fellow players.

"After Tuesday's game I joked with him 'don't try too hard - let it fly'. In the USA he scored a lot of goals and made an amount of assists. That is the Wayne I want to see."

As expected, Robin van Persie will not be available for the game, while Van Gaal confirmed that Danny Welbeck, Jonny Evans and Antonio Valencia are also out of the match.

But with several players missing through injury, Van Gaal is confident his side will get continue their impressive start to the season.

"Nine players are injured and I'm not nervous," the Dutchman said. "We have beaten everyone so far but tomorrow is the one that counts."

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