Manchester United will receive significant financial protection while Manuel Ugarte recovers from his serious knee injury, with FIFA covering the equivalent of around 80% of the midfielder’s £150,000-a-week salary.
Ugarte suffered knee-ligament damage while playing for Uruguay at the World Cup and has since undergone surgery. His injury effectively ended any prospect of United selling him this summer.
However, a fresh report from James Ducker in The Telegraph has revealed the scale of the compensation United will receive through FIFA’s Club Protection Programme. FIFA will cover roughly £120,000 of Ugarte’s £150,000 weekly salary while he remains sidelined.
Manuel Ugarte wages partly protected by FIFA
The Club Protection Programme exists to compensate clubs when players suffer significant injuries while representing their countries.
Under the scheme, qualifying injuries must keep a player out for at least 28 consecutive days. Payments are then made towards the player’s fixed salary, subject to a weekly cap.
For Ugarte, that cap means FIFA will effectively cover around 80% of his reported £150,000-a-week wage.
That does not make the midfielder’s injury good news for United.
Michael Carrick has lost a senior midfield option for a lengthy period, while the club had also been open to selling Ugarte before he was injured.
The financial protection does, however, soften one consequence of that setback.
ReadManUtd previously reported that Ugarte successfully underwent surgery and is now undergoing rehabilitation at Carrington. United have not provided a firm return date.
Ugarte injury changed Manchester United transfer plans
United had been attempting to reshape Carrick’s midfield even before the World Cup.
Ugarte played fewer than a third of United’s available minutes last season and, according to Ducker, would not have qualified for the club’s new Champions League-related wage increase because players now need to feature in at least 60% of available minutes.
A summer departure therefore appeared realistic.
The knee injury removed that option and denied United a potential transfer fee that could have been reinvested elsewhere.
FIFA compensation cannot replace that lost sale, but it should significantly reduce the cost of carrying Ugarte through a long rehabilitation period.
United’s recruitment team must now plan without assuming the Uruguay international will contribute during the opening months of the season.
The immediate priority remains getting Ugarte fully fit. Financially, though, FIFA’s protection programme ensures United will not carry his entire salary while an injury suffered on international duty keeps him unavailable.
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