Nemanja Matic will miss the start of the season as Jose Mourinho says Manchester United will be in trouble due to a lack of fit players, after watching his side get thumped 4-1 by Liverpool.
Matic was missing as Mourinho’s side got hammered by fierce rivals Liverpool in the International Champions Cup in America, but it is the general lack of players that has the manager claiming his side will be in trouble at the start of the new Premier League campaign.
Mourinho says Serbia international Matic has had to undergo surgery after returning from the World Cup injured, and has no time frame for his return.
"Matic arrived from the World Cup, holiday, direct to surgery because something happened in the World Cup," Mourinho told the club's official website.
"He has had surgery. He is out for the start of the season. He came from the World Cup with the injury and the time he had to rest on holiday was not enough to resolve the problem.
"I don't know how long he will be out for."
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Mourinho blasts Valencia fitness
Mourinho has cut a frustrated figure throughout pre-season with players missing after the World Cup, and Antonio Valencia was singled out for enjoying his summer break too much before getting injured.
"We play Real Madrid and we have no more players than what we have," he told MUTV.
"Matic arrived from the World Cup, holiday, direct to surgery because something happened in the World Cup. Antonio Valencia comes from holiday - I think too much holiday for him. His condition was not good when he was back, then injury and also go back.
"Anthony Martial has the baby and after the baby is born - beautiful baby, full of health, thank God - he should be here and he is not here.
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"So we have Alexis (Sanchez) and (Juan) Mata who play every minute of every match and now we have Real Madrid and after that Bayern Munich and that's our start.
"I just hope the boys on deserved holidays, they take care of themselves a little bit and I hope somebody wants to do what (Marcus) Rashford and (Phil) Jones decide to do, which is to be back a little bit earlier to try and help the team because for the beginning of the season we are going to be in trouble.
"The majority of the players that played are not going to play - some of them are not even going to belong to the squad."
He added: "I know the ones that are not always ready - sometimes you need them and you don't have them. Eric Bailly was injured, he shouldn't be playing, but when he saw that (Chris) Smalling in the warm-up was coming out, he made a decision by himself not to let his team play with five kids in the back against (Mohamed) Salah, Mane and company so he put himself there for 90 minutes.
"When we had gasoline we competed, 1-1 after 65 minutes, after that gasoline is gone.
"(Ander) Herrera, (Juan) Mata, Alexis (Sanchez), (Matteo) Darmian, these are the boys we have, they cannot give more. So this match was for nothing."