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Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho admits ‘regret’ over his treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho admits ‘regret’ over his treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger

Jose Mourinho has admitted he regrets the way he treated Bastian Schweinsteiger during his time at Manchester United, and apologised to the midfielder before his switch to the Chicago Fire.

The 32-year-old’s Major League Soccer move was confirmed last week, following a season in the dark at Old Trafford.

Schweinsteiger struggled to make an impact at United after arriving in 2015, but the World Cup winner and Germany hero had precious little chance to turn things around once frozen out by Mourinho the following summer.

The midfielder dropped so far down the pecking order that the club even wrote him off as an asset in their accounts, only for him to make a surprise return from the cold.

Schweinsteiger made four appearances after being brought back into the first team in late October, but was last week granted a move to the United States - a deal Mourinho could not stand in the way of having accepted he mistreated the midfielder.

"He's in the category of players that I feel sorry for something that I did to him," Mourinho said.

"I don't want to speak about him as a player, I don't want to speak as I buy or not to buy. I want to speak about him as a professional, as a human being.

"The last thing I told him before he left 'I was not right with you once, I have to be right with you now'

"So when he was asking me to let him leave I had to say 'yes, you can leave' because I did it once, I cannot do it twice.

"So I feel sorry for the first period with him, he knows that. I am happy that he knows because I told him.

"I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a good influence in training - a very good influence.

"I could not stop him to go even knowing that until the end of the season we have so many matches and we would probably need him for a few matches or a few periods.

"I had to let him go and now publicly wish him and his wife a very happy life in Chicago."

Asked if he regrets the way he treated him, Mourinho said: "Yeah, I do."

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