Manchester United Manager Jose Mourinho met the media a few hours ago and although the session is very short, it is action packed with a ton of information. Mourinho was put on the spot about a multitude of topics including the health and future of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and here’s what he had to say:
“The future is a big surgery, a long period of recovery but the future is also in the hands of a very strong guy, mentally very, very strong, who wrote immediately on his social media that he will stop when he wants, not when people think, so it looks to me [that] he will not give up and will fight and I’m really pleased with that because that’s the Zlatan I know.
“He fought all his life, that’s what I told him, ‘You fought all your life since you were born, I don’t see a reason for not fighting (now).”
Zlatan Ibrahimovic will reportedly head to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to get his surgery done. Bastian Schweinsteiger, who left United to join the Chicago Fire last month, said yesterday that he believes Ibrahimovic should make his next move to the United States and play in MLS.
Mourinho was pressed on the future of Ibrahimovic with the club, and the Manager evaded the question in his response. In all fairness though, it’s probably impossible for Mourinho to answer that query right now, with just so much still all up in the air.
“I don’t know, I’m not interested in it, I don’t care about it,” Mourinho responded.
“I just want the difficult surgery to go (well), we think he’s in fabulous hands, recover from the injury, prepare himself for the next step and I think the next step will always be something he really wants. In a period of doubts about his future, I always said he’s much more important than myself and what I want. It’s what he wants, I always want the players to be happy and choose their future and I think this is what is going to happen.”
“But now, before such an important surgery, I think it’s a waste of time to speak about what next.”
Obviously, Mourinho does care a lot about Ibrahimovic and he is in fact very interested in this topic, but there’s just no right way for him to respond to this line of questioning right now. That said, these are questions that needed to be asked because we all want to know.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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