Manchester United's stars will land in Los Angeles later today relieved that there will be no repeat of the heavy schedule that clogged up their tour to the US last summer.
In particular, it was felt that the game against Real Madrid in Houston, which involved Erik ten Hag and his players making a whistle-stop round trip of more than 2,600 miles to return to their base in San Diego, was a tipping point.
There were concerns that the arduous pre-season was a factor in United’s chronic injury problems last season.