Man Utd Team News: Quartet To Miss West Brom As Mourinho Confirms Major Injury Blow

Manchester United will be desperate for a win to close the gap on Manchester City when they take on West Brom at the Hawthorns on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s offered a team news and injury update.

Unfortunately, the United boss had some devastating news to bring us as Mourinho confirmed that Eric Bailly requires surgery on his ankle injury and will be out for up to three months.

Bailly hasn’t featured since the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at the start of November as he sustained an ankle problem while away with the Ivory Coast squad during the last international break.

Mourinho revealed after the 1-0 win over Bournemouth on Wednesday night that the injury was more serious than first thought and they were deciding whether he would have to go under the knife.

Unfortunately the United boss has now confirmed the decision has been made for Bailly to have an operation to try and cure the issue and the 23-year-old is expected to be out for between two to three months.

Mourinho told ManUtd.com:

“Bailly goes to surgery – the decision is made. I don’t say [he’s out] for the rest of the season but it’s for the next two or three months.

“But now we have [Phil] Jones back and we have [Chris] Smalling, even [Daley] Blind, so it’s a position we have good cover in but of course we’ll miss the player.”

The news will be a huge blow as Bailly could now be out until around March but United still have plenty of cover in the middle of defence with Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, Victor Lindelof and Daley Blind all options.

United will continue to be without Paul Pogba this weekend as he serves the final of his three-match suspension so it will be interesting to see if youngster Scott McTominay keeps his place after making a rare start in midweek.

The clubs website claims Mourinho told reporters today that he’ll have the same squad available that played Bournemouth which suggests Marcos Rojo and Marouane Fellaini will once again miss out with head and knee injuries respectively.

United head in to the weekend action sitting 11 points adrift of Man City so they’ll be hoping the leaders drop points at home to Tottenham on Saturday night which would give Mourinho’s men the opportunity to close the gap on Sunday.