Jose: Lukaku made his own decision on fitness

JOSE Mourinho said £75million signing Romelu Lukaku had taken the decision himself not to start the FA Cup final because of his ankle injury.

With Lukaku not having played since limping off against Arsenal in April, Mourinho insisted he couldn’t start with his centre forward because the player had said he was not ready.

Mourinho said: ‘It’s not a difficult decision. It was an easy decision. When a player tells you he’s not ready to play, that he’s not ready to start the game, then the question is how many minutes do you think you can do? How can I convince a player that is not ready to play?

Lukaku (inset) did come on after 73 minutes but could not make a major impression. Mourinho has been critical of players, notably Chris Smalling, for not being ‘brave’ coming back from injured, although it turned out the defender had a broken toe on that occasion. The United manager did not elaborate on whether the same applied to Lukaku, who will be at the World Cup with Belgium next month. But he did say that the absence of his centre forward and Maurouna Fellaini, also ruled out with injury, disrupted his plans. ‘I knew the opponent. I knew they have a compact low block with lots of physicality where they try to close everything. I knew without a target man it would be difficult for us.’ Mourinho took exception to questions suggesting United had started badly. ‘You think?’ he said. ‘I don’t agree. With your questions I know already where I am and I don’t have a big desire to speak. I think it’s better to say congratulations to the winners and that’s it. When you play against a team so predictable it’s quite easy to adapt to it. I thought we wouldn’t concede any goal but of course Hazard created a penalty.’