Zlatan set for end-of-year return

Mourinho confident Swedish striker will be back playing this year

JOSE MOURINHO has confirmed he expects Zlatan Ibrahimovic to be back playing for Manchester United before the end of the year.

Ibrahimovic (right) has been sidelined since suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury in April.

But the Swede is stepping up his recovery at United’s Carrington training base and Mourinho is confident he will be back in action this year. It was reported last month that Ibrahimovic expects to be available again in time for the Christmas run of fixtures although he could return before then.

“Zlatan is here, under our control, working as I would expect, so, so hard, but he’s not back in a week or a couple of weeks,” said Mourinho.

“Let’s let him take his time and be back in the right moment. Do I think he will be back in 2017? Yes I do, but it’s just a feeling.”

Marcus Rashford will be available to face Huddersfield today, despite being substituted against Benfica on Wednesday with a knee problem.

But Mourinho was again unprepared to put a timescale on Paul Pogba’s return. The France midfielder is currently in Miami as he recovers from a serious hamstring injury but the United manager said he did not know when the player would be available again. “Paul Pogba is not here, I don’t know when he comes back, when he is available, I don’t know about it,” he said.

Like Rashford, Phil Jones is fit to face Huddersfield but Eric Bailly, Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick are still sidelined and Marcos Rojo not yet ready to return following his own cruciate ligament injury in April.

“He’s fit,” Mourinho said of Rashford. “Nobody else [is available], so we go with the same players. We have the same players as we have for the last match.

“Everybody knows that every manager wants to have all the players available, then a question of the way you position yourself in relation to that the best way to do it.

“For some it’s better to remember and remember and remember that the team is not full strength, better to remember Player A or B is missing or Player B and C is important for the team. The best way for us to do it is to speak about opportunities for others, trust for others and belief in others. It doesn’t mean I don’t miss the other players, it is just the way we try to do it.”

Mourinho does not expect any complacency at newly-promoted Huddersfield. “We are silly if we don’t know what is expecting for us, unless it’s a new player in the Premier League, which we have only Victor (Lindelof ),” Mourinho said.

“Apart from that everybody knows the Premier League and knows what it means to play against newly-promoted teams, is nothing new. Every team in the Premier League is good and thinks well, that they can win every match against every opponent.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)