Mourinho Dodges Anthony Martial Questions After Real Madrid Win

DAVID MCDONNELL

Jose Mourinho has refused to give Anthony Martial assurances about his Manchester United future.

Martial left United’s US tour midway through to attend the birth of his second child, but angered Mourinho by not rejoining the squad for the final two games.

After United ended their US tour with a 2-1 win over reigning European champions Real Madrid, Mourinho was asked if Martial would be leaving.

Mourinho fudged that question, saying: “Anthony Martial is better for Karen [press officer] to answer if she wants to answer.”

The United boss was asked again if Martial would be part of his squad upon their return to Manchester and would only say: “I don’t know.”

Martial wants out of United after three years and Mourinho wants to sell the winger, after coming to the conclusion he is not mentally strong enough to play under him. But Manchester United are struggling to sign a replacement for Martial before the Premier League transfer window closes on August 9, with Inter Milan and Croatia star Ivan Perisic his top target.

Mourinho is convinced he will only be able to sign one player before the transfer deadline, with United ready to offer £65million for Leicester and England defender Harry Maguire. The United boss revealed Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones are all cutting short their post-World Cup holidays by three days to return to pre-season training. The trio should be available for United’s Premier League opener at home to Leicester on August 10, with Mourinho praising their willingness to return earlier than expected.

“We start the Premier League in nine days,” said Mourinho. “These are the players that we have, plus Victor Lindelof, who started training two days ago.

“Plus we have Rashford, Jones and Lukaku because they gave to the group and to the team three days of their holidays, so they’re coming back three days early to try and be available for the team.

“And with the fantastic spirit we have in the majority of the players, I repeat: in the majority of the players, we have a fantastic spirit, we go with everything we have to go to the Premier League.

“Alexis Sanchez is fresh, the way the man is running, I think he is in fantastic condition so let’s look at it from a positive side and wait for Lindelof, Rashford, Lukaku and Jones.

“They’re not prepared, but they will be back and that’s the spirit we need, because our first two or three weeks in the Premier League are going to be really hard for us because we didn’t prepare for that.”