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Major Injury Boost For Jose Mourinho As Key First-team Trio Is Available For The Manchester Derby

Manchester United are ready to sell five first-team players in the upcoming summer transfer window.
Jones and Bailly are set to be sold.
Phil Jones

Manchester United have received a massive injury boost ahead of the Manchester Derby as Jose Mourinho has confirmed that the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Phil Jones and Nemanja Matic are all available for tomorrow’s fixture. The Portuguese, however, has confirmed that both Michael Carrick and Eric Bailly will miss the game, while Marouane Fellaini will undergo a late fitness test.

The Red Devils have had some major injury issues in recent times and have suffered a slight drop in form as well. In terms of injuries, the defensive duo of Phil Jones and Eric Bailly has not played for a long time. Jones, in particular, has not played since returning from November’s international duty. During the tenure, the defender was forced to take anaesthetic injections just to play a friendly against Germany.

Nemanja Matic, on his part, was rested for United’s Champions League win over CSKA Moscow in the midweek. The Serbian, furthermore, played the full 90 minutes against Arsenal last Saturday in a game he was termed as a major doubt due to a muscular injury. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, on the other hand, was not even named on the bench against Arsenal and CSKA Moscow, having just returned from a six-month injury layoff.

However, Mourinho has now confirmed that the trio of Ibrahimovic, Matic and Jones is available for selection, but at the same time, has stated that the likes of Michael Carrick and Eric Bailly will be unavailable for selection.

“Zlatan is available, Jones is available, Fellaini I have to wait until tomorrow, Carrick is not available, Bailly is not available. Matic is injured but he plays,” Mourinho was quoted by IBTimes.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (right)

The other sure absentee would be Paul Pogba. The France midfielder received his marching orders in United’s 3-1 win over Arsenal at the Emirates and even though there were claims that the Devils would appeal against his three-match ban, they later decided not to do so.

We currently trail City by 8 points on the Premier League log and a win would extend our unbeaten record at home to 41 games. For Manchester City, furthermore, a win against United would see them create a new unbeaten record of 14 consecutive Premier League victories.

Meanwhile, for Manchester City, Guardiola has confirmed that David Silva has been given the green signal by the doctors and that he will feature against the Devils. Furthermore, Vincent Kompany remains a doubt while Fabian Delph will undergo a late fitness test along with Ilkay Gundogan.

“He’s going to play,” Guardiola was quoted by Manchester City’s official website.

“He (Kompany) felt something and couldn’t play against Donetsk. I wanted him to play to get rhythm before Old Trafford. Tomorrow we will know if he can play.

“[Fabian] Delph was sick, he vomited and had a fever and that’s why he couldn’t play.”

Irrespective of who takes the pitch for Man City, it would make sense for Mourinho to rather focus on our players and keep them in the right frame of mind for the game. A win is all that we need tomorrow and nothing else.

Written by Patrick Rees

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