Manchester United team news: Jose Mourinho hopeful Romelu Lukaku will be fit for FA Cup final against Chelsea
Lukaku suffered an ankle injury during the 2-1 win over Arsenal
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Jose Mourinho is hopeful Romelu Lukaku will be fit in time for Manchester United’s FA Cup final with Chelsea later this month after revealing the striker will miss Friday’s game with Brighton and Hove Albion.
Mourinho takes his team to the south coast on Friday night, knowing that a victory would almost mathematically secure second place, their best final position in five years.
However, he confirmed they will be without top scorer Lukaku, who is recovering from the ankle injury that forced him off during last Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal.
He is hopeful that the Belgium striker will recover in time to face their former club Chelsea in the FA Cup final at Wembley on May 19, insisting the situation was a “positive” one.
“I hope so,” Mourinho said. “It looks positive.”
The manager, meanwhile, has indicated that he is leaving Eric Bailly out of his team at present in order to give other defenders a chance of making their countries’ World Cup squads.
Bailly will not be going to Russia as Ivory Coast failed to qualify, but Argentina’s Marcos Rojo, England pair Chris Smalling and Phil Jones and Sweden’s Victor Lindelof all have varying hopes of making the tournament.
“There's no situation,” he said. “He's fine, no injury, he is one of our five central defenders and honestly my work is not about World Cups and preparing players for the World Cup or giving chances to players at the World Cup.
“But he's the only central defender whose country is not in the World Cup, so if I have to make a kind of more emotional effective choice to help my players he's the one I'm not going to help.
“Rojo, Lindelof, Jones, Smalling, all of them are wishing to make the squad for the World Cup and Eric is not under that pressure.
“I try not to [make those sentimental decisions], I try to be a good team manager and that means being a bit cold, a bit selfish but I'm not as bad as that and I still have space for a little bit of feelings.
“So when I look to the other four central defenders fighting for a position in the World Cup, I'm giving less to Eric.”
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