Jose Mourinho Reveals Star Man Utd Defender Could Return From Cruciate Ligament Injury 'in 2 Weeks'

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that defender Marcos Rojo will return to first team action within two weeks, after the player travelled with the squad to Portugal for Wednesday's match with Benfica.

Rojo was used as one of Mourinho's favoured centre halves in the Portuguese's first season at Old Trafford, with the player himself putting in some of his best performances since signing from Sporting CP in 2014 under the former Chelsea boss. However, the Argentinian international ruptured his cruciate knee ligaments in April against Anderlecht and underwent surgery in May.

In a press conference before the season started, Mourinho claimed it would be December or January before the 27-year-old made his comeback, but it's now emerged that he is rapidly ahead of schedule. Rojo could even be back in contention for the trip to Chelsea at the start of next month - given Mourinho's timeline.

He said ahead of the Benfica game, via Sky Sports: "Rojo is not coming to play but he is coming with the team to train (on Tuesday) with the group. Tomorrow, (he will train) individually, but he's coming. I would say, probably in two weeks, Marcos is ready to play.

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Mourinho did confirm that Eric Bailly was still missing after picking up an injury on international duty recently, while his side are still without Paul Pogba, Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic too.

He added: "I will not tell you the team. With so many injuries, I think that should be something that you can view with almost a guarantee of success, because our options are so few that it is easy for you to guess the 11."

United can take a huge step to qualification to the last 16 with a win in Portugal, as they currently sit top of Group A with six points from a possible six.