“I think that’s it” – Jose Mourinho rattles off the list of injured Man Utd players v Leicester

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed he will be without at least six players for the start of the Premier League season.

The Red Devils host Leicester City at Old Trafford on Friday in the Premier League’s opener and Mourinho had already looked short on options due to the club’s World Cup players.

United had seven players involved in the final weekend of the World Cup with Romelu Lukaku, Marouane Fellaini, Phil Jones, Marcus Rashford, Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba representing the club and set to return late.

And while those players are all now back in training, with Lukaku, Rashford and Jones having returned earlier than scheduled, Mourinho has admitted he will still be without a number of key players against Leicester.

“No miracles,” he told a press conference (via United’s official website).

“The players with a proper pre-season are fit and they are strong. For example, Alexis Sanchez had a good pre-season with lots of matches and lots of minutes.

“He’s more than ready but you cannot have the players who arrived only last Monday after the World Cup semi-finals or final and three weeks’ holiday. You cannot expect them to be fit.

“They returned on Monday. They trained on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today, so you can imagine that they’re not really fit and ready, but we have needs.

“Unavailable is [Sergio] Romero – he had a surgery after his injury before the World Cup. Valencia – he was injured in pre-season. Marcos Rojo – he was injured in the World Cup.

“[Diogo] Dalot – he had a surgery at Porto by the end of April and is not yet ready. Ander Herrera – injured against Bayern. [Nemanja] Matic – injured in the World Cup and surgery in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. I think that’s it.

“This list of the injured players is an important list and today after training I will speak with that group of players because everybody is different – physically and mentally – and to see how available they feel they are because their feeling is very important and understanding how they think they can help or not help.

“After Spurs there is an international break. It gives us a couple of weeks to recover people and to prepare people better and to focus on the players that are available, so I’m not even thinking about that list of players I gave you – Matic, Valencia and so on.

“I focus just on what we have and we go with everything we have to the first match.”

United’s pre-season preparations

United’s pre-season saw them go on tour to the United States, playing five games before travelling to German for a friendly with Bayern Munich.

The Red Devils did not get off to a great start results-wise with three consecutive draws coming against Club American, San Jose Earthquakes and AC Milan – the latter in the International Champions Cup.

A 4-1 defeat followed at the hands of Premier League rivals Liverpool before a win against Champions League winners Real Madrid, followed by a second loss to Bayern Munich.

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