Mourinho sweating over United injury woes

Manchester, february 20

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is hopeful that some of his key players will recover in time for Wednesday’s Champions League Last-16 first leg tie at Sevilla.

United beat Huddersfield  to reach the FA Cup quarterfinals on Saturday with Marcus Rashford, Ander Herrera, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Daley Blind, Marouane Fellaini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic out injured and Paul Pogba ill.

Mourinho said goalkeeper David de Gea was the only player rested for the fifth round tie at the weekend and he was forced to add youngsters Ethan Hamilton and Angel Gomes to make up the numbers on the bench in the 2-0 win at the John Smith’s Stadium.

“I didn’t rest one single player, so we had every player available here against Huddersfield,” the Portuguese manager said.

“I brought two kids (Hamilton and Gomes) that played 90 minutes yesterday (on Friday for the U-23s) because I don’t have another player. Can we recover some of them for Wednesday? I believe so.” 

“Rashford, Herrera, Valencia, I think they have a chance. Paul (Pogba), I don’t know,” he added. 

Mourinho said Jones and Rojo were unlikely to be fit, leaving Chris Smalling, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly as his only fit centre backs. — Reuters