UNITED SPECIAL Injured Rojo makes return to training

MARCOS Rojo has returned to firstteam training as he steps up his recovery from a serious knee injury.

The defender has not played since rupturing the cruciate ligament in his left knee in United’s Europa League win against Anderlecht in April, but took part in a session captured by MUTV cameras yesterday.

The Argentine was joined by both Luke Shaw and Ashley Young, who have not played for the first team since the spring.

But Phil Jones was not spotted at training despite coming through the full 90 minutes at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday.

The 25-year-old has impressed alongside Eric Bailly in the heart of the defence and has kept compatriot Chris Smalling and new signing Victor Lindelof out of the team.

Shaw and Young, meanwhile, both played for the club’s reserves against Swansea in Leigh on Monday night and were back on the training field 14 hours’ later.

Shaw damaged ankle ligaments against the Swans back in April, while Young suffered a groin injury in the win against Celta Vigo just a few days later.

But Shaw, Young and Rojo are now well on track with their respective recoveries as boss Jose Mourinho revealed last month.

“Shaw is the first one to recover, Marcos will be the last one and Ashley in between,” he said of the trio, who were present on the club’s tour of the US.” THREE goals. Three goalscorers. Four minutes. United’s late flurry against Swansea left the press bench scrambling for extra paragraphs at the Liberty Stadium as Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial and Paul Pogba ran riot.

Sky Sports were so bowled over that they awarded Henrikh Mkhitaryan the man of the match award and, on paper at least, you could hardly disagree.

To fans who missed the game, it seemed Mkhitaryan again made the difference as he doubled his league assists’ tally for the whole of last season.

Two assists and 12 chances created suggested the Armenian was at his wicked best as the ‘assist king,’ in Pogba’s words, but that would be an exaggeration. When it came to the first 75 minutes at least. Although he lined up on the left in United’s prematch attacking drills, with Marcus Rashford on the right and Juan Mata through the middle, Mkhitaryan took up his favoured No.10 role when the whistle went.

But, with Swansea’s terriers snapping at his heels, and Pogba and Mata operating in a similar zone, Mkhitaryan struggled. Some uncharacteristically wild snap shots summed up a frustrating afternoon in South Wales.

The game drifted before Jose Mourinho made a bold double substitution with 15 minutes’ to go, throwing on both Marouane Fellaini and Martial.

It was probably a tight decision, even though Mata rarely finishes a full 90 minutes, but the Portuguese’s decision to leave Mkhitaryan on surprised a few people.

Re-energised, the 28-year-old soon made the difference as Swansea boss Paul Clement abandoned his five-man defence in search of an equaliser.

Mlkhitaryan popped up with not one, but two assists, in United’s four-minute rampage to seal all