Red Devils stars Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and out-of-favour midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger were instructed to train on their own as the Manchester United squad were busy with their final preparations, ahead of the high-octane Europa League clash against Rostov.
Mourinho gave special emphasis on every minute detail as he worked closely with his stars ahead of Thursday’s Europa League clash – with a place in the quarter-final up for grabs.
After taking charge at Old Trafford in the summer, Mourinho had made it clear that Schweinsteiger is not in his plans for the season and the German saw himself demoted before earning a recall in the last few months.
The former Bayern Munich star has been more of a fringe player for Man Utd but now after seeing Martial and Shaw being placed away from the first-team stars, it is believed that the duo might have lost the confidence of Mourinho.
Earlier on Thursday, Mourinho had stressed that Martial would not feature in the Europa League clash with the Russian side due to an injury – after already missing the FA Cup defeat against Chelsea.
Mourinho said: “He is not in my thoughts.”
But the French striker was fit enough to trot out for training just hours later, only nowhere near the main first team group.
He was joined by full-back Luke Shaw, who has also found life difficult at Man Utd under Jose Mourinho.
The English defender had earlier faced the ire of his boss Mourinho, who had publicly criticised his fitness levels and the former Southampton man saw Ashley Young, Matteo Darmian and Daley Blind earning starts ahead of him.
And now it is believed that all the three stars are now set to leave Old Trafford in the upcoming summer transfer window.
Man Utd now have an away goal advantage over the first-leg after a 1-1 draw with Rostov in Russia and Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic kept the spirits high in the squad while training on Thursday.
But Wayne Rooney will not be available for the Rostov clash after failing to recover from a knee injury, which also saw him missing the high-octane FA Cup clash with Chelsea.
Talking about Rooney, Mourinho said: “He’s injured.”
“It was some kick in his knee area so he can’t even come out to the pitch. He stays inside with the medical department.”
Mourinho also came out in defence of world record signing Paul Pogba and hit out at the critics despite the Frenchman’s lack-lustre performances.
‘The Special One’, said: “It is not his fault that some pundits are in real trouble while Paul is a multi-millionaire.”
“I feel that the world is losing values and I am scared about the level of envy coming in. It is not Paul’s fault that he gets 10 times the money some players did in the past.”
