Blind Sends strength to Ajax's Nouri

Daley Blind and everybody at Manchester United is thinking of Abdelhak Nouri after the AFC Ajax player suffered serious brain damage during a friendly match on Saturday.

The 20-year-old sustained heart rhythm problems during the game against Werder Bremen, and a statement released by the Dutch club tragically said the chances of recovery from the damage is nil.

Blind left Ajax for United in the summer of 2014 before Nouri made his senior debut, but Daley had trained with the talented midfielder when he was still a youth player and is devastated by the news.

“It is sad and to be honest it is hard to describe how I feel, how I think, how the people of Amsterdam and how the whole football world feels,” Blind told MUTV on Thursday morning.

“He was such a big talent, he was a great person as well and that is how I know him. I did not play for a long time with him, only a few training sessions and a couple of games.

“I don’t know what to say to be honest. I just feel very sad and I wish his family, his friends and everyone who is involved with him all of the best and we send all of the strength that they need.”

Asked about the difficulty of continuing pre-season training in light of such a tragic incident, Blind continued: “Of course, it makes it a bit harder though because when something happens like that, football is not important anymore. Football is something we all love but this is something terrible that he is going through. Football is not important anymore when something like this is happening.

“I want to say again, all of the strength and all of the thoughts are with him, and of course when the work goes onto the pitch then you have to do it, but on days like this it is not easy.”