Man Utd Boss Confirms Fresh Injury Blow Following Win Over West Brom

Jose Mourinho has confirmed Antonio Valencia suffered a hamstring injury during Manchester United’s 2-1 victory over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday afternoon.

Valencia has been one of Mourinho’s most reliable players this season and the defender once again started at right-back yesterday as United closed the gap on Manchester City to 11 points.

However, the Ecuadorian international was forced off midway through the second half at the Hawthorns with Valencia limping off holding his thigh as he was replaced by Marcos Rojo in the 66th minute.

Mourinho has provided an update on the injury and it looks like Valencia is facing a spell on the sidelines as the United boss confirmed the full-back has suffered a hamstring problem.

It was Valencia’s seventh consecutive start for United and Mourinho feels the injury is a result of the 32-year-old playing too many matches over a short period of time.

However, the United wouldn’t speculate on how long Valencia will be out for until the injury is further assessed by the clubs medical team but it sounds like he hopes the issue won’t be too serious.

Mourinho told ManUtd.com:

“This is what I call a December injury. It is an injury of accumulation of fatigue. It is a muscular one. Hamstring. Big, small, medium, I don’t know.”

“Let’s wait. I think he is an experienced guy to not let it go to difficult limits. But it is an injury of fatigue. Everyone in the Premier League especially the ones in more accumulation of cups, European cups, they are at risk.”

We’ll have to wait and see how long Valencia is out for but it would be a big blow for United if he was ruled out for the entire festive period as the Red Devils face playing six games in just 16 days.

Valencia is almost certain to miss Wednesday night’s League Cup quarter final clash with Bristol City so we could see Matteo Darmian given a recall to the starting eleven after being frozen out of the squad in recent weeks.