Mourinho gripped by injury fears ahead of testing time for United

Cup tie given the week had been dominated by speculation over his relationship with Mourinho.

United took the unusual step of confirming he would miss out through illness hours before the match and Nemanja Matic hopes Pogba is back to face Sevilla.

“He is an important player for us, this club, but he is ill, and I think that we in the midfield did a great job,” Serbia international Matic said.

“Michael (Carrick) is an amazing player, even at 36 he ran a lot, and Scott (McTominay) played amazing.

“I am not sure what has happened, I think he (Pogba) was ill and didn’t feel very well this morning, so I hope he will be ready for the next game.” United still managed to send out a strong lineup despite their injury issues, with Romelu Lukaku capping a fine display with a match-winning double.

“He is very important for us,” Matic said. “It’s very important for his confidence that he is scoring goals and he is a great striker, very strong and he is still young, I am sure he will be important for us until the end of the season.

“You have to ask him how he feels. I am happy we have him in the team. He scored two goals and the striker is there to score and he did exactly that.”

That clinical finishing was enough to beat hard-working Huddersfield, whose goalkeeper Jonas Lossl hopes to build on recent displays at embattled West Brom next weekend as the Terriers target Premier League survival.

“This is the cup and it is about winning and going through, so it was not a success,” Lossl said. “But we played a very good game and we have to be proud of that.

“We have to bring that on and I am sure if we’re going to play like this in the last 11 games we stand a good chance.”