Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has blamed the club’s medical staff for Ander Herrera’s hamstring injury.
The Spanish midfielder made his first start in nearly four weeks in United’s 0-0 draw with Sevilla on Wednesday night but lasted 17 minutes before needing to come off.
Herrera suffered a hamstring injury an immediately told the United bench he needed to come off before being replaced by Paul Pogba.
The 28-year-old had only just returned from a muscle injury and Mourinho suggested after the match that his medical staff made a wrong diagnosis on Herrera’s fitness.
“I think it is a bad injury,” Sky Sports quote Mourinho as saying after Wednesday’s match. “He had a small injury that stopped him for the last couple of matches but the medical team said he was 100 per cent ready for the last Saturday. It didn’t look like he was fully fit.
“We didn’t play him to give him more work and more protection, but it looks like he was not fully fit.
“The medical department gave him fully fit. They gave him fully fit Saturday and he trained Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and he looked fit.
“The way he was playing during the time he was on the pitch, I think he showed that intensity that is only possible when you are fit.”
“He was pressing really high, we start the match not giving one inch to [Ever] Banega, pressing him really high. Ander was one of them, Scott [McTominay] was the other one, and you only do that when you feel really good.
“Then the back-heel creates a contraction in the muscular area where he had a fitness problem, and now we have the proof that we not 100 per cent fit.”
Herrera has endured a tough second season under Mourinho after developing into a key player for the Portuguese last term.
Nemanja Matic’s arrival over the summer has limited Herrera’s game time on the pitch and now any hopes he had of featuring at the 2018 World Cup are all but over.
Herrera has only started eight Premier League matches for United this season and is certainly ruled out of Sunday’s clash with rivals Chelsea.
