Fellaini could start in attack as striker crisis sees trio join Ibrahimovic on the sidelines
Jose Mourinho’s preparations for Manchester United’s FA Cup quarter-final against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge tonight have been plunged into chaos with his entire strike force ruled out of the game.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is suspended for the match but United’s hopes of retaining the trophy this season have been dealt a severe setback with Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney picking up injuries and Marcus Rashford struck down by illness.
It means all four players will be unavailable for the game against Mourinho’s former club and leave the manager with no option but to field a makeshift attack in a damaging blow to their hopes of reaching the last four.
The crisis up front could not have come at a worse time with United in the midst of a congested fixtures schedule, with Chelsea the third of five games in 16 days for the club.
Ibrahimovic will return for the second leg of United’s Europa League last-16 tie against FC Rostov on Thursday because his threematch ban for elbowing Bournemouth’s Tyrone Mings applies only to domestic matches, and Mourinho will hope Rashford has overcome his illness by then, but the severity of Martial and Rooney’s injuries are unclear.
United trained on Friday and Saturday and yesterday morning before travelling to London yesterday afternoon, with a 20-man squad departing from Stockport station.
Rooney is thought to have collided with defender Phil Jones in training and suffered a leg injury in the process. The nature and extent of Martial’s problem is not yet known.
Mourinho may now opt to use Marouane Fellaini up front or Henrik Mkhitaryan as a false nine while Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard could feature.
Ibrahimovic’s absence was already a concern for Mourinho but the loss of three other forwards is a cruel blow. Rooney was expected to feature while Rashford – who has mostly been used out wide this season or as an impact substitute – was hopeful of being given a rare runout at centre-forward.
Chelsea will be United’s 46th game of a frenetic season and the team has shown some signs of fatigue in recent games.
United are away at Middlesbrough on Sunday, when leading scorer Ibrahimovic will again be missing.
Meanwhile, Mourinho has said that Antonio Conte’s first season in English football has been made far easier by Chelsea not playing in Europe and that their march to the Premier League title must be viewed from that “position of privilege”.
The Portuguese praised Conte for making the most of the situation but appeared to question whether Chelsea would be 10 points clear at the top if they had also had European football to navigate.
“The most difficult thing to have is time to work, and they [Chelsea] have time to work,” Mourinho said.
“He has got in his hands a situation where they have time to work, time to rest, time to relax, time to disconnect, time to travel, time to have holidays, time to go to America and enjoy America for a couple of days.”