Eric Bailly: Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho says defender’s ankle injury is ‘serious’

Eric Bailly was the first player to sign for Manchester United after Jose Mourinho took over as manager

Manchester United defender Eric Bailly may need surgery on a “serious” ankle injury, says manager Jose Mourinho.

The 23-year-old centre-back, who Mourinho said was injured while on international duty with the Ivory Coast, has not played for United since the defeat at Chelsea on 5 November.

He is not expected to miss the rest of the season.

“I don’t want to be so pessimistic. I want to leave it with a doctor,” said Mourinho.

“We are trying a conservative treatment. If the conservative treatment is not resulting, probably he will have a surgery procedure but let’s wait a little bit more.”

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones started Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth, and Mourinho said he was happy with his options at centre-back.

“During the whole season, we’ve had problems with central defenders but because the number is four or five, we manage always to have [players available] and Chris Smalling is playing amazingly well for seven or eight matches in a row maybe, so we are fine.”

Bailly was the first player to sign for United after Mourinho took over as manager, joining from Villarreal in the summer of 2016 for £30m. – bbc.co.uk