Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho remains hopeful that summer signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan and left-back Luke Shaw should be fit for the Red Devils' upcoming league clash against Stoke City.
The Armenian international, who moved to England from Borussia Dortmund last featured in his side's 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on 10 September. An injury has kept him out of action since then and he is hoping to make a comeback into the starting lineup.
Shaw suffered a groin injury in United's 3-1 loss to Watford and has been on the sidelines since then. The England international also missed the Europa League clash against Zorya Luhansk due to illness.
The former Real Madrid and Chelsea manager confirmed Phil Jones is the only player set for a spell on the sidelines. In addition to this, Mourinho also explained that a knock to Timothy Fosu-Mensah in the European fixture forced him to keep Memphis Depay on the bench.
"Phil Jones is the only one with an important injury and definitely out for more weeks to come. Micki is training now with the team. Luke is ill but hopefully he will train with the team too [on Friday]. We are fine in terms of our condition," Mourinho explained, as quoted by United's official website.
"Every game I know more about my players, especially the ones that are on the pitch. Obviously I would like to have other players playing more so I can see more and learn more about them," explained the boss, when asked whether the tough fixtures in October will tell him more about his playing staff.
"I had in my mind to give Memphis 20-25 minutes [on Thursday night], but I couldn't with the way I had to make the changes and the problem with Tim Fosu-Mensah meant I had to play a right-back [Ashley Young]. But we need the squad, that's for sure."
