Manchester United academy notebook: Shea Lacey returns and why Sekou Kone hasn't made his debut

Welcome to this week's edition of the Manchester United academy notebook.

The Manchester Evening News provide more coverage of United's academy than any other outlet and we experimented by publishing an academy notebook last season.

We waited for the academy football to get fully underway in 2024/25 to bring it back, and we will bring our readers the notebook each week now it's been relaunched.

Last week's edition covered the arrival of Chido Obi-Martin, Samuel Lusale and James Overy and they should be great additions to an already supremely talented Under-18 team.

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So without further ado, here is a round-up of the latest news from the club's youth set-up...

Gore travels to Portugal

From Moor Lane to the Estádio do Dragão in the space of just two days. Dan Gore captained the Under-21s in front of a couple hundred fans at the home of Salford City on Tuesday night and has travelled with the first team to face FC Porto in the Europa League on Thursday.

Gore and the progress he was making after returning from injury was the focus of my report on Tuesday and it was excellent to see him included in the senior travelling squad.

After getting to know U21 manager Travis Binnion, I've learned that he couldn't rate Gore any higher and it's also easy to forget how much he impressed Erik ten Hag last year.

Gore now has the challenge of making up for lost time but he was making hugely positive strides until sustaining an injury on loan in January and should be up to that task.

Fletcher involved in first-team training

Jack Fletcher was absent from the U21 squad against Hertha