Jose Mourinho leave Wayne Rooney, Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of squad

Football: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has left club captain Wayne Rooney, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and Jesse Lingard out of Manchester United's 20-man squad to face Feyenoord at the Europa League match in Holland on Thursday.


In his pre-match news conference on Wednesday Mourinho said that:

"He [Rooney] has played every game since the start of the season and he also played 90 minutes for the England team. He played 90 minutes last weekend.  I want him to be fresh for the next Premier League match.

"In the position he plays [No. 10], I have lots of solutions. In the positions where I have other solutions, it means I can have fresh players for this game and then fresh players for the game on Sunday. I'll try to have a strong team here and a strong team for Sunday. He took it professionally, like the other players."

Other United players left at home includes; regular full-backs, Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw, which will give chances to the likes of Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo and Tim Fosu-Mensah.
Phil Jones was left out due to injuries he sustained to his knee ligament during training and will be out for month.

Mourinho debunk claims that he rested Shaw due to his history with injuries.

"I didn't make the decision based on that negative episode," Mourinho said of Luke Shaw. "Luke is a very good player, who is working well and hard.

"My options in the first four matches have been Luke, Luke, Luke, Luke and I think it is time for Marcos to play so it was a simple decision. Marcos is a very good player who is working really well and hard."