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Manchester United forward Alexis Sanchez ruled out for the rest of the year

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Man Utd star Alexis Sanchez dealt January transfer blow as hamstring injury blocks exit path
Man Utd star Alexis Sanchez will be sidelined until the new year with a hamstring injury

Manchester United forward Alexis Sanchez will miss the rest of the year with a hamstring injury.

The Chilean has struggled at Old Trafford since moving there from Arsenal in January and he will not feature for the rest of 2018.

Jose Mourinho confirmed that he missed Tuesday night’s last-gasp victory over Young Boys due to the problem and hit out at the media.

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Mourinho complained that every time a player is dropped or on the bench at United, it’s a much bigger issue than other clubs.

“The first thing I can say is that in every club, when a player is not playing it is a simple manager’s decision,’ he explained.

“In our club when a player does not play it is always because of the player is not behaving and has disciplinary issues.

“Of course that is not the case again.

“He has an important injury, I don’t want to risk by saying for how long he will be out but from the top of my experience I would say he is not playing this year.”

He added: “No scans yet but the player is experienced, the player knows what the injury is.

“Also from the top of my experience, just the painful scream and the way the injury happened I know it’s going to be for a long time.

“It’s not the little muscular injury that in one week or 10 days the player is ready. It’s for me and also for Alexis, the feelings before the scans is that the grade is different than the (Victor) Lindelof one and the Lindelof one was not an easy one so Alexis has what I used to call an aggressive muscular injury.”

It will be a blow for Sanchez, with reports that he was looking to engineer a move away from Old Trafford in January.

Despite Sanchez’s arrival on a lucrative four-and-a-half year contract in January being seen as a coup, considering they beat neighbours City to his signature, he has failed to fire under Mourinho, scoring four goals in 30 appearances.