Jose Mourinho reveals what Manchester United have missed during Paul Pogba's injury lay-off

The 24-year-old midfielder is expected to be part of the matchday squad for Newcastle United's visit to Old Trafford

Paul Pogba has not featured since his hamstring injury in September (Getty)

Jose Mourinho has admitted that Manchester United went without several “very important qualities” during Paul Pogba's two-month lay-off.

Pogba is expected to be included in United's matchday squad for the evening kick-off against Newcastle United at Old Trafford having fully recovered from a hamstring injury suffered in September.

The 24-year-old began the season impressively before limping out of his side's 2-0 Champions League victory over Basel and Mourinho admits that United have not looked the same during his absence.

“We were a team with him and without him. We kept some qualities - togetherness, organisation, discipline - we kept that, but we lost other qualities,” the United manager said on Friday.

“We tried to get over that with Fellaini but then we lost also Fellaini. To be for so long without Fellaini and Pogba, we lost very important qualities.

“One of them was physicality. We lost a lot in relation to that. Another in the capacity to put pressure higher up the pitch. Another in the quality of passing and the connection with the strikers. We lost a lot of qualities, but we kept quiet and fighting and not bringing that discussion to the table all the time.

Mourinho added: “We gave opportunities to other people, we gave everything we had to give, we had good results, we had bad results. Life goes on.”

Pogba is likely to be joined on the bench by two fellow long-term absentees, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo.

The pair have both recovered from cruciate knee ligament damage suffered during United's Europa League quarter-final with Anderlecht in April.