Jose Mourinho has Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ander Herrera available for selection as Manchester United host Everton at Old Trafford on Tuesday.
Manchester United play hosts to Everton at Old Trafford on Tuesday, with just three points and two places separating the two teams in the Premier League table. Both sides faced disappointments in their matches on the weekend and are looking to get back to winning ways.
The matches are coming thick and fast as we enter the climactic end of the season, and neither team can afford to drop any points on Tuesday.
The team update is quite positive for Manchester United this time around as compared to the weekend as Jose Mourinho’s problems with regards to availability of key players are easing up, with two players set to return the starting XI on Tuesday, with another likely to play a part too.
The two players who are certain to return to action against Everton are Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ander Herrera, both of whom served the last match of their respective suspensions in the match against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Who do we have here? ?@Ibra_Official & @PaulPogba took part in a post-match training session at Old Trafford yesterday… pic.twitter.com/oitFaE3HKD
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) April 2, 2017
Ibrahimovic had been handed a three-match ban for his incident with Tyrone Mings of Bournemouth in early March, while Herrera was suspended for two games after he was sent off in Manchester United’s FA Cup encounter against Chelsea last month.
The duo are now certain to claim their place back in the starting lineup. While Ibrahimovic is set to take his place as the focal point of the Manchester United attack in place of Marcus Rashford, Herrera is likely to play in Michael Carrick’s stead.
Meanwhile, Paul Pogba could return too, after missing the last two games due to the hamstring injury he picked up in the Europa League match against FC Rostov. However, Mourinho still has three key players unavailable, with Juan Mata (groin), Chris Smalling (knee) and Phil Jones (foot) all being long-term absentees.
Speaking on the situation regarding the aforementioned players in his early team news, Mourinho said: “I don’t know about Pogba. I think Mata is out for a long time, Jones and Smalling for a long time, but I cannot say on Pogba.
“I cannot say he is ready for Tuesday because I don’t know. I don’t think he is such a long-term injury like the others.”
But Mourinho did hint that Ibrahimovic and Herrera could be poised to take their place in the starting XI on Tuesday, as he said: “Against Everton, we’ll try to play our best team and try to win the match.”