Mourinho woe as Sanchez out of festive dates

ALEXIS Sanchez is set to miss Manchester United’s hectic festive schedule after Jose Mourinho revealed he expects the Chilean forward to be sidelined for around six weeks.

Sanchez has struggled to hit top form since his move from Arsenal in January and was surprisingly left out of the squad for the midweek Champions League victory over Young Boys.

His week worsened drastically when he injured his hamstring in training on Thursday and Mourinho thinks the 29-year-old is set for a lengthy absence.

“(There have been) no scans yet, but the player is experienced, he knows what the injury is,” Mourinho said. “From my experience, just the painful scream and the way the injury happened, I know it’s going to be a long time.”

Pressed on a specific timeframe, Mourinho asserted his belief that the issue is more serious than the muscular injury that is set to keep defender Victor Lindelof out for three weeks.

“For me and for Alexis, the feeling before the scans is that the grade is different than the Lindelof one — and the Lindelof one is not the easy one,” Mourinho added. “For me, it’s January.”

If Mourinho is accurate with his forecast then Sanchez will miss up to 10 fixtures, including the visit to Old Trafford next week of his former club Arsenal.

First for United, though, is a trip to struggling Southampton today, with Mourinho setting his sights on closing the gap on the Premier League’s top four over the next few weeks.

United sit seventh and are seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea, yet Mourinho is hopeful of a concerted effort to push up the table, having already sealed their place in the Champions League knockout stages.

“We can now just focus on the Premier League and we need points. We need to improve our position in the table, we want to close the gap to the top four,” he said. “We want to be smelling these positions. If not there then behind, but just smelling that for the second part of the season.

“But everybody for different reasons needs points. We are going to have a very difficult time.”