Mourinho delighted by ‘emotional’ Ibrahimovic return

MANCHESTER: Jose Mourinho admitted he felt emotional to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic return from his career-threatening knee ligament operation in Manchester United’s impressive 4-1 victory over Newcastle United.

Paul Pogba, coming back from a 12-match lay-off of his own with a hamstring problem, started the game and played a pivotal role, laying on an equaliser for Anthony Martial and scoring United’s third. But Ibrahimovic, who tore knee ligaments against Anderlecht in April and underwent career-saving surgery, drew the biggest cheer of the day when he appeared as a 77th-minute substitute.

COMPLETE CONTROL

“The second half was ours,” said Mourinho. “We had control, goals, beautiful actions and still time for a very emotional scene for all of us, who stayed close to such a professional with one of the biggest injuries in football.

“And so him coming back was a joy but for us close to him it was more than that, it was a big emotion to see the big guy back.”

Pogba was missed during his two-month absence, not least by striker Romelu Lukaku who ended a run of seven games without a goal by adding the fourth for United against Newcastle. And although he would not talk about Pogba during his injury, Mourinho was forthright about the French international’s value to United, although he now has to make a decision whether or not to select him for Wednesday’s Champions League group game with Basel.

“He was top,” said the United manager. “It looked like he was not out, he came back with a great performance, really great performance, he had great influence in the game. I agreed with him he had to make the decision of coming out at the first sign of fatigue because we don’t want to go over the limit so he played a little bit more than an hour. “

POGBA, COMING BACK FROM A 12MATCH LAYOFF OF HIS OWN WITH A HAMSTRING PROBLEM, PLAYED A PIVOTAL ROLE