More misery for Manchester United: Another star ruled out of Europa League match after picking up a knee injury
Sep 15, 2016 at 12:28 PM
Phil Jones misery continues as the defender has been injured once again. Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that the defender will miss a month of action after damaging his knee ligaments.
Mourinho revealed that Jones has suffered lateral knee ligament damage in training and will now miss the next few weeks of matches. The England international was in the squad to face Feyenoord in the Europa League opener. Injury has been a major problem throughout his career and remained on the sidelines for the majority of the time last season. After impressing in the 2014-15 season, he could play only 13 matches for United last term.
Jones last made an appearance for the Red Devils on January 2 of this year when he was subbed off in United’s 2-1 victory over Swansea City.
The latest injury is bound to pile more pressure on Mourinho who is looking to bounce back from a defeat against Manchester City last weekend. Manchester United saw their perfect start to the season coming to an end when they were humiliated 2-1 at home by their city rivals. With United set to play Watford three days after the Europa League clash, Mourinho rested some important players to keep the team fresh. Two of the rested players were defenders Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw. With the main defenders out of the team and Jones injured too, Mourinho is expected to give Matteo Darmian and Marcos Rojo, their first start of the season. However, the United defenders will have to be at their best to stop the Dutch side who have started the season in a brilliant season. Feyenoord have won their opening five matches and have scored more at least four goals in three matches.
The English giants are also without their skipper Wayne Rooney and striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan. While the striker has stayed back in England to fully recover from an injury Rooney has been left out to stay fresh for the Watford clash on Sunday.
On his decision of team selection, Mourinho said: “We play on Thursday here, then we go back and play at 12 o’clock on Sunday. I’ll try and have a strong team here, a strong team for Sunday and give rest to some players.”