Mourinho provides Mkhitaryan update

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho expects Henrikh Mkhitaryan to return in time for the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final with Chelsea on 13 March, official website of MU informed.

The Armenia international was a key figure in the previous round’s win at Blackburn Rovers before sustaining a hamstring injury soon after scoring the only goal of the Europa League tie at Saint-Etienne.

The problem caused the attacking midfielder to miss the EFL Cup final and he also looks set to sit out the visit of Bournemouth to Old Trafford on Saturday and the European encounter at FC Rostov next Thursday.

However, Mourinho believes the 28-year-old is well on the road to recovery, even if another of his players, Bastian Schweinsteiger, has picked up a minor knock.

“Mkhitaryan is still out,” the manager told MUTV. “He didn’t recover in time for this game. I believe, during the next week, especially for the weekend [ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge], he will be fine and we don’t have major problems. Bastian has a little thing but, apart from that, everybody is fine.”

The boss has promised to utilise his squad in the coming weeks as the games continue to pile up for the in-form Reds.

“I told them [the squad] already a player that is not even selected can start the next match and this is the reality,” he said. “We have to go match after match. If we decide not to give a priority to any competition, as we’ve said every competition is important, we cannot choose this team to play this match and that team to play that one. We have to go match after match and make readjustments and try to be as strong as possible.”