Sridhar Bhamidi
One of the biggest positives coming out this weekend for Jose Mourinho is the fitness of Marcus Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Both the players sustained serious knee injuries back in April and have been missing from action since.
It was a painful process back for the duo as the club and the fans waited anxiously for the players to get back to full fitness. Ahead of a busy festive period, this is a really welcome news for manager Jose Mourinho who can now rotate his squad.
It is well known that Jose likes to be protective of his players and Rojo gave a glowing tribute to his manager. The Argentine defender also spoke about his relationship with Ibrahimovic with whom he was spotted taking photos during the Europa League.
Rojo, who said he is targeting silverware this season, has revealed that Jose does the task of stopping the two players from going at each other on the training ground.
When asked about Mourinho, Rojo said (quoted by Express):
“He’s always happy, close to the players. He’s a very happy person, he helped me a lot, he got the best out of me. He always tells us to play quietly in practice because with Ibra we kill each other with kicks.”
I know Rojo is being tongue-in-cheek with his comments, but it is a well-known secret that Zlatan doesn’t give an inch to anyone – not even to his own team-mates in training.
This suggests that Jose is always protective of his players and is ferociously protective of them. Though Luke Shaw would differ in opinion, I would like to believe that Jose is always a player’s manager.
Coming back to Rojo, the defender feels that Ibrahimovic is one of the best players he has ever played with. He also spoke about talking to the Swedish talisman about his chances of coming out of retirement and playing for the national team in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Rojo said:
“I asked Ibra that now that they are in the World Cup if he would like to go, he says no but I don’t know,” he added.
Sweden qualified for the World Cup by stunning Italy over two legs in the recent playoffs and the statements of Zlatan post that win sparked rumours if he would be available for his national team.
Rojo feels that the 36-year-old forward is an incredible person on the pitch and wants him to join his national side in Russia.
Whether he joins them or not, I feel Zlatan has a lot to offer for United this season especially with the fixtures about to pile up.
