- Jones suffered an injury during England’s clash with Germany on Friday
- The Man Utd defender had to be replaced after just 25 minutes
- Gareth Southgate has provided a positive update to ease Jose Mourinho’s fears
- READ MORE: Man Utd take action, quartet to secure new deals but Mourinho favourite still no closer
After seeing Phil Jones last just 25 minutes for England against Germany on Friday, Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho would likely have been far from impressed.
The last thing the Portuguese tactician needs at this stage of the season is more injury headaches, and it looked as though he could have had one on his hands when the defender was forced to limp off with an already heavily strapped thigh.
In turn, having recently broken down and replaced in United’s loss at Huddersfield, a repeat was bad news as far as the Red Devils were concerned, as with key fixtures in the Premier League and in Europe coming up, they can’t afford for their injury list to grow longer.
England boss Gareth Southgate has allayed their fears with a positive update though, as seen in the tweet below from freelance injury analyst Ben Dinnery.
Southgate plays down Jones’ injury: “He seems fine, we’ve checked him out. It’s something he’s been carrying but he doesn’t seem to be any worse. We’ll see whether Phil stays with us.” #MUFC pic.twitter.com/d5elF8WDZA
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) November 11, 2017
“He seems fine, we’ve checked him out. It’s something he’s been carrying but he doesn’t seem to be any worse. We’ll see whether Phil stays with us.”
Mourinho will surely push for Jones to return to Manchester so he can receive treatment and rest as opposed to staying with the England camp and potentially be available for selection against Brazil at Wembley next week.
The risk of suffering another setback will surely be avoided, and United will certainly hope that if he does stay with Southgate’s squad, he at least won’t feature in their next outing which is merely another international friendly.
Jones has played in all 11 Premier League games so far this season which reiterates his importance to Mourinho, and so the Man Utd boss will hope that he returns from international duty with no lasting effects of his injury problem ahead of facing Newcastle United at Old Trafford next Saturday.