Jose Mourinho Blames the Papers for Conte Spat After Condemning Managers Who 'Cry' Over Injuries

José Mourinho has backtracked on comments he made last week after Chelsea boss Antonio Conte took the Portuguese manager's statement as a direct criticism towards him, according to FourFourTwo.

Mourinho's comments that sparked this feud were about managers who "try to find the excuse of a hypothetical failure based on injuries" and despite the media storm that arose in regards to the jibe at Conte, Mourinho is sticking to his guns.

"I don't speak to him. I don't know why he speaks to me but that is no problem or maybe it is not his fault and it is the journalists' fault when they pass to him the wrong message," the former Chelsea manager claimed.

"There are managers all over the world that by philosophy they prefer to speak about injuries, they prefer to try to find the excuse of a hypothetical failure based on injuries.

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"Since last season we had big injuries and last season you know that without [Romelu] Lukaku, Zlatan [Ibrahimović] was even more important for us and [everyone knows] what [Paul] Pogba means for us," Mourinho continued.

"I moan about why I don't understand why we play Saturday after Wednesday when we should play Sunday. I moan about this all the time but not about injuries.

"When managers say I moan about the fixtures then they are right, but nobody can say I moan about injuries because I always try to speak about opportunities for other players."

Manchester United return to Premier League football this weekend, following their fortunate 1-0 victory over S.L. Benfica in the Champions League, with a trip to the Kirklees Stadium to face David Wagner's resilient Huddersfield.