Manchester United talent Joe Hugill has been sent back to Old Trafford due to a “budget decision”.
Hugill spent the first half of the season on a one-year loan deal at Wigan Athletic, but the move was canceled by the League One side.
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The 21-year-old has scored five goals in 18 games for Wigan so far this season, but has not started a game since the end of September.
Shaun Maloney’s side have already signed Dale Taylor on a season-long loan from Nottingham Forest and have now signed Will Goodwin on loan from Oxford United for the second half of the season.
In a team that normally plays with a single striker, Maloney explained that Hugill was no longer needed at the Brick Community Stadium.
“It’s actually a budget decision,” Maloney said. “I think he’s done a really good job here, I’ve really enjoyed working with Joe and I think Joe is still developing further.”
“In fairness to him, Dale Taylor has been in really, really good form over the last 10 or so games and I know Joe has games to play.”
“He would always leave us if Dale had kept his place, which he did… although I would still have liked to keep him.”
“I know we signed Will Goodwin, but Joe has a very different profile than him… and we can only carry two ‘9’s at the moment.”
“So that’s the decision… it has nothing to do with performance or how we trained… we can only wear two ‘9’s and that’s the decision.”
Asked if that meant Wigan wouldn’t sign a replacement striker, Maloney replied: “Yes, definitely.”
“We have Dale and Will, we could do that this season. We are happy with the two nines we have.”
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Hugill moved from Sunderland to Man United in 2020 and played regularly for the Red Devils’ U21 team.
Since then he has also had spells on loan at Altrincham and Burton Albion before joining Wigan this season.
Hugill, now 21, hopes to play more regularly for the first team in the second half of the season.