Manchester United have confirmed their official squad for the first half of the Premier League season, and Bastian Schweinsteiger is included.
As announced on the Premier League’s official website, the 25-man squad has been submitted and despite having failed to play a single minute of football so far this season, Schweinsteiger has made the cut.
The 32-year-old ended his international career this week, and will now be fully focused on a desperate push to regain his place in United’s team and to prove to Jose Mourinho that he deserves to play an influential role in his plans.
While many consider Mourinho’s treatment of the former Bayern Munich man as unfair, it appears as though the door is slightly still ajar for Schweinsteiger to prove a point and avoid calling time on his Old Trafford career after just one season.
Away from the German midfielder, United have made one surprise decision by including 21-year-old defender Sadiq El-Fitouri.
The youngster was signed from Salford City, the club owned by the Neville brothers, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs and will now look forward to making his case to feature in the Premier League at some point.
United will have a chance, along with the other 19 Premier League clubs, to make changes to their squad in January, and it remains to be seen how active the Red Devils are in the transfer window after moving to bring in Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba over the summer.
Full squad: Bailly, Blind, Carrick, Darmian, De Gea, Depay, El-Fitouri, Fellaini, Herrera, Ibrahimovic, Johnstone, Jones, Lingard, Mata, Mkhitaryan, Pogba, Rojo, Romero, Rooney, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Smalling, Valencia, Young
First-team U21s: Fosu-Mensah, Martial, Rashford, Shaw