Shaw was singled out for criticism by Mourinho, the United manager, for his part in Watford’s second goal

Luke Shaw had suffered a recurrence of a long-standing groin injury and was playing through the pain barrier when he made the mistake which enabled Watford to score their crucial second goal in Manchester United’s 3-1 defeat at Vicarage Road yesterday.

Mourinho misery as Zuniga sinks United

José Mourinho was scathing about Shaw’s error afterwards, singling the left back out for criticism for failing to close down Nordin Amrabat in the build-up to Juan Camilo Zúñiga’s 83rd-minute strike, but The Times has learnt that he was playing with a restricted physical capacity.

Shaw was substituted two minutes later by Mourinho, who did not disclose the player’s injury in his post-match media interviews. Instead the Portuguese condemned Shaw for failing to learn lessons from United’s 2-1 defeat by Manchester City the previous