Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney to miss out on Old Trafford sendoff

Wayne Rooney may have no Old Trafford sendoff to his 13-year Manchester United career after José Mourinho said the captain will probably not feature in Sunday’s final home game against Crystal Palace.

Rooney’s future is in doubt, with the 31-year-old possibly departing in the summer. If so United’s record goal-scorer and longest-serving player, having joined in August 2004, would leave with no chance of saying goodbye to the home crowd.

Mourinho said: “I will bring three or four of the first-team players, to play one half each one against Palace. I can give a little bit of experience to the team but, at the same time, save them all for Wednesday. I don’t know about Wayne or not – he played 90 minutes in the last match, so probably not.”

Paul Pogba will play as he needs match-time before Wednesday’s Europa League final against Ajax in Stockholm. He has being absent owing to his father’s death.

“Paul Pogba is fine – strong guy, strong mentality,” Mourinho said. “He’s learning how to live after his father passed away but he is strong. He knows he needs to play on Sunday because he doesn’t play or train for a long time and he needs these minutes on the pitch, so he plays against Palace.

“Chris Smalling has a small problem. A problem for the weekend but not for the final. Marouane Fellaini [hamstring] is the question mark, we wait for scans. Again his feelings are not bad but let’s wait. Timothy Fosu-Mensah, he plays Sunday and if the reaction is good and if he manages the game without problems he’s a new option for the final.”

Mourinho named the youngsters who will face Palace. “You will have two goalkeepers, Joel Pereira and Kieran O’Hara, we will have Demetri Mitchell, Scott McTominay, Josh Harrop, Matthew Willock, Angel Gomes and Zachary Dearnley. I think that’s it, plus Fosu-Mensah, Axel Tuanzebe, so lots of them.”

On Ajax’s progress to the final, Mourinho said: “I’m not surprised at all. Why are you surprised? I really don’t know. I don’t think the age of the players is important, the quality is.”

He does, though, think Ajax should not have dropped out of the Champions League into the Europa League. “They are a Champions League team, they come from the Champions League, I always disagree with it. I think a team shouldn’t play two Europe competitions in the same season, they should go home.

“They shouldn’t have the opportunity to play the Europa League – the Europa League is for teams who go into the Europa League like us.”