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Eric Bailly faces long lay-off after Man Utd manager Jose Mourinho admits defender has 'serious' ankle injury
Jose Mourinho fears Eric Bailly may need surgery on a “serious” ankle injury that could put the Manchester United defender’s hopes of playing again this season in jeopardy.
Bailly’s last appearance for United came away to Chelsea on Nov 5, since when he has missed the club’s past eight matches, and Mourinho fears the centre-half could face a lengthy lay-off.
Mourinho said Bailly had originally suffered the injury on international duty with Ivory Coast, even though he did not specify exactly when the problem occured. Bailly had returned to Manchester with an injury after playing against Mali in October but he subsequently played three games for United and was suspended for his country’s World Cup qualifier against Morocco in the last international break last month.
“I think it’s serious,” the United manager said after his side’s nervy 1-0 win over Bournemouth at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.
“We are trying a conservative treatment but if the conservative treatment is not working, he might have a surgery procedure. Probably the doctor can inform, it is not a problem for me, we don’t want to speak about it.”
Asked if he was worried Bailly may not play again this season, Mourinho said: “I don’t want to be pessimistic, I want to leave it with the doctor.
“But today, we play with [Chris] Smalling and [Phil] Jones, [Victor] Lindelof on the bench, Marcos Rojo is injured but nothing really big so during all season we have problems with central defenders. Chris Smalling is playing amazingly well, so we are fine.”
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was again left out by Mourinho, who said he was picking players who deserved inclusion. The Armenia midfielder has been omitted from the 18-man squad for seven of the past eight matches and is facing a serious battle to win back the manager’s trust.
“I can only have six players on the bench and I try to have some balance on the bench,” Mourinho said. “I had two defenders that can play in different areas, I have Ashley Young to cover the wing and wing backs position, [Ander] Herrera is a midfield player, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] is a striker, [Marcus] Rashford is a second striker and a winger. To have Mkhitaryan means I don't have one of them and I believe the others deserve.”
City’s victory at Swansea remains the gap at the top remains 11 points but Mourinho said he would have gone on holiday by now if he felt the title race was over.
“I said we play match after match and the next we have to try to win, we have a difficult one at West Brom and we try match after match,” he said. “It is only over in May. If it is over now I go on holiday to Brazil or Los Angeles.”
Eddie Howe, the Bournemouth manager, claimed United’s goalscorer Romelu Lukaku should have been sent off in the first half. The Belgium striker escaped a yellow card for a poor challenge on Nathan Ake in the 18th minute and was then booked for a foul on Harry Arter. “The first tackle was a yellow card and we made that point to the fourth official and then he picked up a booking which was a clear yellow so he should have been off the pitch,” Howe said.
