MANCHESTER -- Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has ruled out Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick for the entire Christmas fixture list.
Fellaini has missed the last seven games with a knee injury while Carrick has only made one appearance this season and underwent a procedure to correct an irregular heart rhythm in October.
United face five games in 14 days over Christmas and New Year, starting with a trip to Leicester on Saturday.
But Mourinho will be without Fellaini and Carrick, as well as Eric Bailly, who has had surgery on an ankle injury, and Antonio Valencia, who picked up a hamstring problem during the 2-1 win over West Brom last weekend.
The United manager told a news conference on Friday: "Fellaini is not available. Michael Carrick, no. Not for the Christmas period.
"Valencia is out as you know, Eric Bailly is having surgery right now, or is just finishing or is still there, who else? Nobody else, everything is OK."
Mourinho was critical of a number of his players following the 2-1 defeat to Bristol City on Wednesday, accusing them of "not turning up to the office."
He will need his fringe players during the festive schedule -- United have been given just six rest days -- and the coach insisted no one would be shown the exit in January based solely on what happened at Ashton Gate.
He said: "I don't make decisions based on only one game or one feeling or one night, not at all.
"First of all you always like to speak about the loser, probably you should speak more about the winner, what I told after the match.
"They were lucky but they fought a lot to try to be lucky and is one of the beautiful things that can happen in football when a team from a lower division kills the giant.
"I could be critical with my players but they did enough to win. They lost when they were the only team people believed could win, so we move on and we move on quickly because we have another match."
United head into Christmas 11 points behind leaders Manchester City, who play Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Mourinho insists United are still in the race for the title, but the 54-year-old is refusing to look beyond Saturday night's game at the King Power Stadium.
He added: "Expectation is to go to every match and try to win, which is what we do and the matches we lost we fought until the last second.
"The matches we lost, if I'm not wrong, 2-1, 2-1, 1-0, so we really manage to fight in every match to try the best result.
"There is nothing more than that we can do, we can promise, we go to every match and do our best."