There is a chance that one or more of the five long term Manchester United injury absentees: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Marcos Rojo, could return to action at Chelsea on Sunday. How much of a chance? Well it’s a mystery, but manager Jose Mourinho hinted that the next couple of days could have consequence on whether or not any of his injured players make a come back or not.
Now there’s a sixth injury concern, as Jesse Lingard was withdrawn from the UEFA Champions League victory over Benfica Tuesday night.
Lingard took a knock to his back, but as of now it doesn’t seem very serious, and it seems likely that he will play. Mourinho was asked about the six injured players on the sidelines, and said that it’s too early to tell right now in some cases.
“I have to wait a little bit,” Mourinho responded when asked about the six walking wounded.
“Normally, the press conference is a bit later in the week, we still have Friday and Saturday [to come]. I’m not very optimistic, but I don’t want to lie. I don’t want you to say that I told a lie when I said there’s no chance of recovering – so I prefer just to say two more days to confirm my expectation.”
Mourinho had to move his press conference up a day to accommodate his trip to Madrid, where he’ll face tax fraud charges in a Spanish court.
Also, more often than not United have been playing on Saturdays, not Sunday, so that Friday media session is typically closer to match day.
Mourinho press conference video: go to this link
Odds via Ladbrokes: Chelsea- 16/11, United 2/1, Draw 21/10
Prediction: Chelsea 1, United 1
We’ll have the Chelsea injury report and starting XI prediction for you shortly. As always feel free to post your own Man United starting XI and score predictions in the comments section.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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