United may leave Rooney for Zorya Luhansk match

paris — Jose Mourinho may leave Wayne Rooney out of Manchester United’s starting side for the second match in a row when they face Ukrainian side Zorya Luhansk in the Europa League on Thursday.

Rooney was on the bench for United’s weekend game with Premier League champions Leicester City and didn’t get on until very late in the game as Mourinho’s side showed their best form of the season in a superb 4-1 win. That led to huge speculation over whether Rooney has a future under Mourinho at United, where he made his club debut, scoring a hat-trick in a 6-2 Champions League win over Fenerbahce, exactly 12 years ago on Wednesday. “Wayne Rooney is selected (in the squad). I did not decide yet if I start with him,” Mourinho said on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s match at Old Trafford.

“He didn’t train yesterday (Tuesday), he did just a little bit of the session on Monday,” the United manager added.

“He had a back problem. So today was the first time he had a training session with the other players and today it was a training session where the intensity and complexity is obviously reduced because we have a game tomorrow. “So I was completely convinced of playing him tomorrow from the beginning with this situation in the last couple of days, but I am not sure if I do that because of the situation you (the media) created with him.

“He can’t afford to have a performance that is not really good,” the Portuguese boss explained.

Mourinho’s reluctant contenders in Europe’s second-tier club competition kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 defeat at Feyenoord in Rotterdam a fortnight ago.

That Dutch disaster, which left United bottom of Group A, was the second of three consecutive reverses in between Premier League losses to Manchester City and then Watford. But United welcome the side who sit second in the Ukrainian Premier League with a renewed spring in their step after their weekend rout of English champions Leicester City.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic misses the tie after being granted time off by Mourinho who could welcome back Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The 27-year-old Armenian playmaker, a £26 million ($34.5 million, 30.7 million euros) signing from Borussia Dortmund, has missed United’s last four games with a thigh problem.

Zorya travel to Manchester after an opening 1-1 draw with Fenerbahce. Midfielder Zeljko Ljubenovic spelt out the task facing him and his teammates.

“I watched their last match against Laicester. Hopefully we will manage to play better than Laicester did,” the Belgrade-born 35-year-old told his club’s website. He added: “We need to play very

Manchester United’s Ashley Young and Wayne Rooney share a light moment during training. —

carefully in defence. I hope we’ll be able to get a positive result.

“But I’m happy anyway that we will have a chance to test ourselves against such an opponent. And if we make mistakes we’ll have a chance to do our homework for the return leg.”

Group A rivals Fenerbahce and Feyenoord meet in Istanbul with Dirk Kuyt, now the captain of the Dutch side, going back to face the club he represented for three years until 2015. Unlike United, Premier League rivals Southampton enjoyed the perfect start to their campaign with a 3-0 home defeat of Sparta Prague. —

Fixtures

(Kicks-offs all UAE time, Groups A-F 1105pm, Groups G-L 9pm, unless stated): GRoUp A Fenerbahce v Feyenoord United (ENG) v Luhansk GRoUp B Astana v Young Boys (7pm) Olympiakos v APOEL GRoUp C Qabala v Mainz (7pm) Saint-Etienne v Anderlecht GRoUp D St Petersburg v Alkmaar Dundalk v Tel-Aviv GRoUp E Austria v Plzen Roma v Giurgiu GRoUp F Bilbao v Vienna Genk v Sassuolo GRoUp G Ajax v Standard Celta Vigo v Panathinaikos GRoUp H Gent v Konyaspor Donetsk v Braga GRoUp I Schalke v Salzburg Krasnodar v Nice GRoUp J Fiorentina v Qarabag Liberec v PAOK GRoUp K Prague v Inter Beer-Sheva v Southampton GRoUp L Zurich v Osmanlispor Bucharest v Villarreal