Chelsea
Man Utd Team News: Mourinho Could be Without 6 Players For Chelsea Trip
Jose Mourinho has offered a team news update ahead of Manchester United’s trip to Chelsea with six players set to miss the game.
Manchester United will be looking to close the gap on leaders Manchester City with a positive result when they take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.
Ahead of the game, United boss Jose Mourinho held his pre-match press conference today and he gave reporters a team news and injury update.
The United manager has a number of doubts for the game this weekend with as many as six first team squad players in danger of missing the trip to the capital.
Jesse Lingard became the latest injury concern for the red Devils after the attacker picked up a back injury during Tuesday night’s Champions League victory over Benfica.
The England international was withdrawn at half-time at Old Trafford after taking a painful blow to his lower back and Mourinho will have to make a late decision over his possible involvement this weekend.
United have five other long-term injury absentees with Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Marcos Rojo all on the sidelines.
And Mourinho says he’ll need to wait a couple of days before he can fully assess his squad’s availability for the Chelsea game. He told ManUtd.com:
“I have to wait a little bit, Normally, the press conference is a bit later in the week, we still have Friday and Saturday [to come]. I’m not very optimistic, but I don’t want to lie. I don’t want you to say that I told a lie when I said there’s no chance of recovering – so I prefer just to say two more days to confirm my expectation.”
After Lingard, Rojo is perhaps the player likely to return next with the Argentinean international back in training in recent weeks after recovering from a knee ligament injury, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be ready to return to the squad on Sunday.
Carrick is being regularly assessed as he looks to overcome a mysterious illness that’s hampered him in recent weeks while Fellaini is still working his way back from a knee injury that he picked up during the last international break.
Pogba will be hoping to be available after the upcoming break after taking his time recovering from a hamstring injury while Ibrahimovic is still weeks away from contention as he’s still overcoming his knee ligament injury.
