Jose just can’t rest Lukaku

JOSE MOURINHO has told Romelu Lukaku he cannot give him a breather until Zlatan Ibrahimovic returns from injury.

In-form Lukaku will play his 12th match of the season for club and country when he faces pointless and goalless Crystal Palace today – and that will rise to 14 by the time he returns from duty with Belgium. The heavy schedule raises fears the £75million striker could suffer a similar fate to Paul Pogba, who Mourinho has admitted will be out “longterm” with the hamstring injury he picked up two-and-ahalf weeks ago. But Mourinho says because he needs Marcus Rashford to play wide, he cannot leave out Lukaku, who has 10 goals in his first nine games to beat Sir Bobby Charlton’s club-record start of nine in his first nine set in 1956-57.

“Without Zlatan, we cannot rotate the striker, especially as Rashford is playing in other positions,” said LUKAKU Mourinho. “So until the moment we have Zlatan we cannot think about giving rest to our No9 in the same way we give rest in other positions.”

Mourinho will also not ask Belgium boss Roberto Martinez – whose team have already qualified for he World Cup – to rest Lukaku.

“Belgium is Roberto’s responsibility. It’s his decision to play him or not,” he said.

“I cannot, professionally speaking, say do this or do that.”

Palace manager Roy Hodgson would love to have such problems.

He is without a recognised striker after Christian Benteke was ruled out for six weeks with a knee problem.

Hodgson, who will use Bakary Sako as a makeshift forward, said: “I’ve only had to go without a recognised centreforward before when I was at Blackburn.”