Zlatan Ibrahimovic could return to Manchester United at some point this season, manager Jose Mourinho confirmed today. At his weekly news conference ahead of the season opener versus West Ham United on Sunday, Mourinho confirmed that talks are ongoing between Ibra’s camp and the club.
Zlatan tore ligaments in his knee towards the end of last season, and thus United did not renew his one year deal which expired in June. He is still very close to the club, as he’s been using the team’s training facilities for his rehabiliation.
When asked, Mourinho gave this response a news conference on Friday: “You know he’s injured, he needs time to recover, he’s not ready to play tomorrow.”
“It’s not something urgent, that we are desperate to have it done or not done, I just think that he was very clear by showing what he did last year was not enough for him, he thinks he can do more and wants more at the highest level so we are having conversations and we are discussing the possibility of him to stay with us for the second part of the season.”
You can watch the video of the entire press conference over at this link.
With the future of Zlatan Ibrahimovic still up in the air, and a lot of talk about the Swede potentially moving to Major League Soccer swirling about, we asked two prominent figures in the MLS world about the idea. Here’s a link to what Ibrahimovic’s former United teammate Bastian Schweinsteiger had to say about the idea, and also the feedback from USMNT legend Brian McBride.
Zlatan may be ahead of schedule in his rehab, but he probably won’t be ready to play again until the end of this year, early 2018. United, in the mean time, replaced him with Everton striker Romelu Lukaku, who is wearing Ibrahimovic’s #9 shirt, with Zlatan’s blessing of course.
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.
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