Monday 20 February 2017

Mourinho's injury update after FA Cup win

Jose Mourinho has confirmed David De Gea and Antonio Valencia were rested in the Emirates FA Cup win at Blackburn Rovers. But Phil Jones and Wayne Rooney missed out due to injuries that should prevent them from playing in Wednesday’s Europa League match at Saint-Etienne.

De Gea was not in the squad at Ewood Park and that led to Sergio Romero making his eighth start of the season, with youngster Dean Henderson sitting on the bench as back-up. Antonio Valencia was also omitted and that allowed the versatile Ashley Young to impress as an industrious stand-in right-back.
Despite falling behind to Danny Graham’s opening goal, United impressively fought back to secure a 2-1 win and a place in the FA Cup last eight thanks to finishes from Marcus Rashford and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
While speaking at the post-match press conference in Blackburn, Mourinho discussed all of the aforementioned absentees. “De Gea was rested,” he told reporters. “Rooney is injured. Jones is injured. I don’t think they will recover [to face Saint-Etienne on Wednesday]. Valencia was rested but Rooney and Jones haven’t trained with the team yet so I don’t think they will be there for Wednesday.”

Following a trip to France in the Europa League, this pivotal week in the season will conclude with the EFL Cup final against Southampton at Wembley Stadium and Mourinho is unsure whether Rooney will be fit for the game. Asked specifically if the captain could return, he simply said: “I don’t know.”

No comments:

Post a Comment