Patrick Rees
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that the club is uncertain of how severe Eric Bailly’s knee injury is. The new arrival from Villarreal, Bailly was lined up against the Eagles in United’s midweek action in an unfamiliar right-back role, but the 22-year-old defender was snubbed off in the second half, as he was struggling on the pitch.
Bailly made his first Premier League start in almost two months after he injured his ligaments in United’s 4-0 thrashing at hands of Chelsea, but the defender was unable to complete the entire game at the Selhurst park. The 22-year-old, though, marked his return in United’s Europa League clash against Zorya, but then again, he was dropped for Tottenham’s game, only to be brought onto the field to replace Henrikh Mkhitaryan with just 5 more minutes to play.
Bailly got his first knock in the game when Palace’s midfielder Lee Chun Yong rushed towards him and stomped his left knee, but the manager decided to continue the game. But after struggling a bit, Mourinho finally brought Darmian in to replace the Ivorian and while speaking to MUTV, Mourinho admitted that the club are awaiting the results of the test:
“The only thing I can say is that it is not the same knee.”
“He had an injury in the right knee and he recovered fantastically well. Now it is the left knee. I don’t know really what he has, but let us see and wait.
“He could resist for so long. I would say for about 75 minutes he could resist. He is a special guy and his pain level is really high.”
His return is uncertain, but what’s certain is his unavailability during the month of January, as the 22-year-old will travel to Africa to serve his nation in the African Cup tournament, but his latest injuries have put a question to his involvement.
He is scheduled to depart to Gabon early next month to play his first game of the tournament against Togo on January 16.
The 22-year-old has been one of the best buys from Mourinho this year and thanks to the hype of Pogba, Ibrahimovic and Mkhitaryan, Bailly has been left in the crowd unnoticed.
In his absence, Jose Mourinho trusted the injury prone Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo and the English-Argentine duo are doing fine in the last few games. And with Bailly set to miss all the action in January, the above-mentioned duo is expected to continue as there is no concrete news about the possible return of their star defender Chris Smalling
