Jose Provides Injury Update

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed Chris Smalling and Tim Fosu-Mensah have returned to training ahead of Sunday's Community Shield match at Wembley.

The two defenders were both pictured at the Aon Training Complex on Friday morning after missing the recent pre-season matches against Everton and Galatasaray, and Mourinho gave a positive update on the pair during an exclusive pre-match interview with MUTV.

“They are fine now,” the manager reported. “They have recovered and they are training with the group as normal, so they are fine. Everybody needs minutes - that is the reality. We had so little time to play and Smalling is a player who has not even played one minute, but it is a little bit the same for everyone.”

Expanding on the players’ attitude to training, Mourinho continued: “The reality is that they are working magnificently well, they are working really hard and I am really confident for the season because of the attitude they have. Of course we need time but in training they use every minute they have on the pitch to try to improve and adapt to new ideas. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Although Mourinho does not have any injuries to worry about, the manager is still trying to improve the fitness of the players who reported late to training following their participation at various international tournaments this summer. For example Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Matteo Darmian, Marouane Fellaini, Morgan Schneiderlin and Anthony Martial only joined the group last week.

“One thing is to start five weeks ago like some of them and another thing is to start one week ago, it is completely different,” Mourinho told MUTV on Friday. “But with the way we work we try to bring them on as fast as we can. I won’t say to top form but to a level where they are ready to compete.

“That is the reality of modern football, especially when you are a team with a lot of players that go to the Euros and the Copa America. They come later, they don’t have enough holiday and we have to make them ready for the competition in a short period of time.

“It is hard but this is what we have and complaining or crying is not the way to do it. The way to do is to work hard, like they are doing all the time.”