Manchester United host Liverpool in the Premier League’s Saturday lunchtime kickoff with second place at stake.
We currently have a two point lead over Jurgen Klopp’s side, but more importantly, a nine point lead over Chelsea who are currently outside of the Champions League places looking in.
Speaking ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho has this afternoon given a team news and injury update to reporters.
Starting with the positive news, the boss says Marouane Fellaini could be back in the Manchester United squad tomorrow for the first time since 31 January. The Belgian midfielder has been out for the past five weeks after undergoing surgery on his knee.
Further great news for us is that Jose confirmed defender Eric Bailly is now fully fit after making two substitute appearances in recent weeks following a three month layoff with a knee injury. The Ivorian is one of the top centre-backs in the world and has been greatly missed in recent times.
Jose Mourinho told MUTV:
“Yeah, he [Bailly] was fully fit for a couple of weeks. Yeah, but he’s okay. The only one that is back to the team is Fellaini.”
However, Anthony Martial may miss the game as he did in our 3-2 win at Crystal Palace on Monday night.
The Portuguese coach continued:
“It’s basically the same [squad],” he said. “The people injured are recovering step by step and a few of them are very, very close to a return – but not yet. We are fine, we have a squad ready for everything. The number we choose – 23 – was to protect them and we are coping with that.”
This means defenders Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Daley Blind all remain unavailable. Ander Herrera is a long-term injury in midfield and Zlatan Ibrahimovic is still yet to fully recover from his ongoing knee injury, though the Swedish striker is back in training.
