Despite a pretty convincing win over Swansea City, a victory that Manchester United desperately needed, all the postgame talk has surrounded controversy. Manchester United called out the heart of two defenders, Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw, for not wanting to play for him.
Mourinho made comments implying that the duo are not really injured, and that claim has now been disputed today by England Interim Manager Gareth Southgate.
“They didn’t play [against Swansea], though, so there’s a medical issue,” Southgate said. “Chris hasn’t played for the last four games. We have really good relationships, medical-to-medical, with all clubs.
“There are some players that we’ll have to assess [on Monday] because we’re not sure, but that dialogue’s ongoing.
“I’ve got great trust in our medical team that they’ll make the right calls.”
United are now off on a very long, boring international break until November 19th. Southgate has already confirmed that both defenders are not on the national team squad this time around as England has a friendly against Spain and World Cup qualifier against Scotland coming up.
When asked whether Mourinho should have publicly criticized these two players or nott, Southgate evaded the query when giving his response:
“It is a club matter and it is not for me to comment on in terms of players playing with injury.”
The Three Lions caretaker boss obviously made the correct decision to stay out of this mess. Obviously, this isn’t the first time that Mourinho has thrown one of his players, in this case two, under the bus.
It’s not even the first time that he’s done this kind of thing to Luke Shaw.
It’s unfortunate that a controversy like this has come along, but especially now at this time, given how it’s international break and there’s so little to talk about in the news cycle. It only serves to shine more of a spotlight on this discord.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
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