Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Alexis Sanchez has sustained a muscle injury, and has put a timeline on how long his recovery could take.
The 29-year-old has continued to struggle for form this season, bagging just one goal and two assists in 12 appearances for the Red Devils.
With that in mind, it’s arguably not such a big blow for Mourinho, but given the busy festive period coming up, the Portuguese tactician could certainly have done without it as United look to contend on various fronts.
Particularly with games against Arsenal and Liverpool to start December, it’s far from an ideal situation for Man Utd, as Mourinho has suggested that the Chilean international could be ruled out for up to six weeks, as per the tweet below from freelance injury analyst Ben Dinnery.
In turn, that rules Sanchez out of a large chunk of fixtures coming up, and takes away an option from Mourinho in the final third with the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Juan Mata now set to lead the charge.
That’s a lot of quality and depth there in fairness, and so United should be able to cope, especially given Sanchez has struggled to make a positive impact on a consistent basis ever since his move from Arsenal in January anyway.
Nevertheless, such an injury may also see him struggle to regain full match sharpness when he’s given the all clear to resume training, and so we may not be seeing the Chilean forward back in action and fully fit until mid-January.
Jose Mourinho says that Alexis Sanchez could be sidelined for up-to six weeks with a hamstring strain. “It’s what I call an aggressive muscular injury.” #MUFC
Injury ? Tablehttps://t.co/cckOHhGs0b
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) November 30, 2018
Mourinho doesn't expect Sanchez back before January. "He has an important injury. I don’t want to risk by saying for how long [he will be out] but from the top of my experience, I would say he’s not playing [again] this year.” #MUFC
Injury ? Tablehttps://t.co/cckOHhGs0b
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) November 30, 2018
