It’s still a little early yet for a Manchester Derby injury report, but United manager Jose Mourinho freely disclosed his team’s fitness situation yesterday anyway. The fitness statuses of some of these individuals will no doubt change between now and the big game on Sunday, when first place Manchester City come to Old Trafford, but here’s what we know now.
Mourinho, fresh off his feeling that Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger engaged in gamesmanship with the fitness of star striker Alexandre Lacazette, said he questioned the authenticity of City Manager Pep Guardiola’s claims that David Silva is a doubt for this weekend.
(Wenger has fired back at Mourinho by the way)
Mourinho made comments that evoked the signature scene in the classic movie “A Few Good Men,” as gave status updates on six of his players, one of which, Nemanja Matic was previously thought to be injured to a degree of severity that he might have to miss the Manchester Derby.
“You want the truth or what do you want?”
“You want the truth,” Mourinho said.
“The truth is Eric Bailly no chance for the weekend, Phil Jones a chance, [Marouane] Fellaini a chance, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] a big chance and [Nemanja] Matic is injured but will play for sure. [Michael] Carrick no chance.
“I’m telling the truth, he’s injured but will play for sure. No stories of Lacazette or David Silva. All the truth.”
Remember of course that this is all a very fluid situation, and some of these statuses will likely change between now and kickoff of the blockbuster Manchester Derby.
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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