Manchester United team news: Jose Mourinho hopeful some World Cup players can feature against Leicester

Mourinho, who encouraged many of his squad to cut short their post-tournament holidays to return to pre-season training earlier, hopes some can play on Friday

Jose Mourinho hopes to be able to call on some of Manchester United's World Cup representatives when his side open up their Premier League campaign against Leicester on Friday.

Several United players, including Sweden's Victor Lindelof and England pair Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones, returned to training just last week and have had little time to get ready for the new campaign.

Mourinho, who encouraged many of his squad to cut short their post-tournament holidays to return to pre-season training earlier, believes Rashford in particular is getting closer to full speed.

"Lindelof the same, Jones the same and let's see if one of the others is ready to give us a help, 20-25 minutes. Any help that can come from them, is welcome," he said.

Mourinho also suggested Ashley Young, Jesse Lingard, Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku could also play a part against Leicester.

United were beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena as their pre-season came to a disappointing end.

Manager Mourinho brought on academy prospects James Garner, Axel Tuanzebe, Tahith Chong and Demetri Mitchell during the second half.

At full-time, the Portuguese compared his youthful team to the raft of talent at Bayern's disposal, including experienced players such as Robert Lewandowski and Arjen Robben.

"Finally, it's over. Finally, such a difficult pre-season is over," Mourinho said. "The players were, once more, brilliant. They could not have done better than what they did. (It was a) fantastic experience for the boys.

Mourinho has cut a frustrated figure during United's pre-season (REUTERS)

"There was a moment I was looking to the area and there was Axel at centre-back to left, Demetri at left wing-back, Garner in midfield on the left and Chong.

"At the same time it was Lewandowski on Axel, Robben on Mitchell, (Leon) Goretzka on Garner and (Niklas) Sule on Chong.

"It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic. We were playing against their best team, it was their complete squad apart from (Corentin) Tolisso."