Sunday 23 July 2017 12:22, UK
Manchester United's Marcos Rojo could be out until January 2018 as he continues to recover from a serious knee injury, boss Jose Mourinho has warned.
The Argentina defender ruptured his cruciate knee ligaments in April and has been recovering since surgery in May.
Mourinho confirmed in the US ahead of United's second pre-season game against Real Madrid that Luke Shaw and Ashley Young will also miss the start of the Premier League season next month.
The Portuguese said: "No chance [of those players being ready] for the beginning of the Premier League.
"Luke is the first one to recover. Marcos will be the last one and Ashley in between. So I would say Shaw will return in September, Young in October, Marcos in December or even January.
"But it's good for them to be with us and recover with the group [on the US tour], and I have to say the group is really strong. It's important for them to be with us and not alone in Manchester."
United face Real Madrid in their next pre-season fixture in Santa Clara, California, and Mourinho says he will give some of his peripheral players more minutes this time.
"Tomorrow is a test but I prefer to say experience for us as a team and for players who didn't play much in the last match, like Tim Fosu-Mensah, Axel Tuanzebe, Matteo Darmian, Demetri Mitchell.
"I keep saying that we cannot have better training sessions than to play against best teams but for me more important than results is the work, the minutes to every player and to try different things."
