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Man Utd could be without as many as 6 players for Chelsea trip

Manchester United return from Champions League duty on Tuesday to take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League this weekend.

Whilst we were beating Benfica 2-0 at Old Trafford to virtually secure our place into the second round of this season’s Champions League, Chelsea were being thrashed 3-0 at AS Roma, a result that leaves them as the only English side not top of their group after four games.

Our 1-0 win over Tottenham last Saturday sees us start the weekend in second place, five points behind leaders Manchester City.  Chelsea are back in fourth, four points behind us, knowing they need a victory if they want any hope of defending last season’s Premier League title.

Ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho has been speaking at his pre-match press conference today ahead of a return to his former club.  The boss gave a team news and injury update in which he could not confirm whether six players are either ruled out or available this weekend.

When asked about Paul Pogba, Marouane Fellaini, Jesse Lingard, Michael Carrick, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo’s availability for the weekend, Mourinho simply told MUTV:

“I have to wait a little bit. Normally, the press conference is a bit later in the week, we still have Friday and Saturday [to come]. I’m not very optimistic, but I don’t want to lie. I don’t want you to say that I told a lie when I said there’s no chance of recovering – so I prefer just to say two more days to confirm my expectation.”

Paul Pogba has been sidelined since picking up a hamstring injury in the opening 20 minutes of our 3-0 win against FC Basel in our Champions League opener back on 12 September.

We lost Marouane Fellaini to injury at the start of the month whilst away on international duty with Belgium, whilst Michael Carrick has been out with a mystery illness for nearly two months.

Both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo have been injured since last season, whilst Jesse Lingard came off at half-time midweek after suffering a back injury midway through the first half versus Benfica.