Yesterday, Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho was unsure about the injury recovery timeline for his striker Romelu Lukaku. In discussing his new year’s resolution to attack more during the second half of the season, Mourinho said he didn’t know how long he would be without the Belgian, who suffered a head injury on Saturday versus Southampton, and had to be stretchered off the pitch.
Today, the Portugese was more definitive about the outlook. Asked by a TV reporter before United’s New Year’s Day clash at Everton, Mourinho said Lukaku would be gone a week.
“I would say a week [out for Lukaku]. It’s nothing really important – just a little protection, but no problem,” Mourinho told Sky Sports.
Lukaku missed the chance to play at Everton as a member of the opposition for the first time since 2013 today, and he’ll likely be out for the FA Cup third round clash at Old Trafford versus Derby County.
Mourinho was asked about whether or not his side will have to adapt to being without Lukaku.
“Of course,” he responded.
“If we don’t have a player like Lukaku or a normal replacement like Zlatan, we have to play with the qualities we have, so we have to forget that we have to play without a target man because we don’t have. We have what we have. We trust the players.”
“The players are giving everything like they have done from the first minute of the season. No Lukaku and no Ibrahimovic means we have no no.9 as you normally call a target man that we usually play (with), so we have to change.”
Prior to January 1, Lukaku had started every single one of United’s league fixtures, and across all competitions, he achieved first team selection for every match but three.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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