Man Utd Team News: Mourinho Confirms Injury Blow + Offers Bailly, Zlatan Updates

Manchester United will be looking to get back to winning ways when they take on Huddersfield at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

Jose Mourinho has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s provided the latest news and injury updates ahead of the game.

Unfortunately the United boss confirmed that Marouane Fellaini is facing a spell on the sidelines after suffering a knee injury during the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.

Fellaini came on as a second half substitute at Wembley on Wednesday night but lasted just seven minutes after hurting the same knee that had kept him on the sidelines for almost two months recently.

Thankfully it’s not the same ACL injury and although Mourinho was reluctant to put a definitive time-scale on his recovery while the doctors assess the issue, the United boss expects Fellaini to be out for a few weeks.

He told ManUtd.com:

“They [the medical team] are still working on it. It’s an injury and I feel sorry for him personally and I feel sorry for the team because he’s an important player for us.

“I don’t have news because I don’t want to give you news based on the initial approach. But I don’t think the news is very good. He has a problem in his knee – it’s the same knee [as previous injuries] but not the same location. It was internal, now it’s external, so let’s wait probably a couple more days, but of course he is out of the game tomorrow.

“It’s not an ACL [anterior cruciate ligament], it’s not a complete rupture of any structure of the knee, so we are not going as far as that. But we need him and the Champions League is arriving, we have lots of tough matches to play. Probably we are going to lose him for a few weeks, but I cannot say if it’s two, three, four or five [weeks]. I cannot say at this moment.”

Mourinho also offered an update on the fitness of Eric Bailly and the United boss is hoping the centre-back will be available for selection again by the end of the month as he continues to recover from ankle surgery that’s kept him out since the start of November.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is also currently on the sidelines as he looks to regain full fitness following a serious knee injury and once again Mourinho is hoping the striker could be back in contention later this month.

Mourinho continued to ManUtd.com:

“They are working on the pitch but not yet with us as a group so they are not very close to a return. But I want to believe that by Champions League time, around the end of the month, they will be back.”

United head in to the weekend action sitting just three points clear of second placed Liverpool so they’ll be desperate to widen the gap with a win over Huddersfield tomorrow afternoon.