Manchester United manager José Mourinho has admitted that the world's most expensive player Paul Pogba could be absent from Thursday's crucial clash with Manchester City, with the Frenchman having played 210 minutes of football in the space of three days.

"Dead" after a long week

Games have been coming thick and fast for the Red Devils over the past few weeks, and with significant injuries, new and old, beginning to infect the side Mourinho has been limited in his options.

Pogba has proven to be one of the players that have been sacrificed, with the 23-year-old playing the full 120 minutes in Thursday's extra-time victory over Anderlecht to secure their place in the last four of the Europa League.

The Frenchman then went on to play a full 90 minutes in the 2-0 win over Burnley on Sunday before been replaced by Michael Carrick in added time, that win takes them within a point of the fourth-placed City ahead of their clash but Mourinho admitted that Pogba could be omitted.

"I don't know," Mourinho told his post-match press conference. "Dead he is for sure, if he's injured or if it's just the super accumulation of fatigue in the muscles, I don't know."

"But as I was saying if he cannot play Thursday," the coach stated to the gathered press. "He cannot play Thursday."

"We play another one and we don't cry," Mourinho added. "Like we didn't today."

Don't cry over injuries

Old Trafford is currently home to nothing more than an injury crisis and it was only significantly increased by Thursday's clash, with both Marcos Rojo and Zlatan Ibrahimović going off during the win over Anderlecht with seemingly serious knee injuries.

The seriousness and lay off of the knocks have yet to be fully realised but neither will return for the remainder of the season. United paid tribute with their names emblazoned on their training shirts in the warm-up at Turf Moor but Mourinho admitted that the side are only hurt by the injuries been given to those individuals.

"We cry because we have two important injuries to two amazing guys," he added. "But we don't cry because we lose qualities on the pitch."

"We just cry because they are important injuries," Mourinho concluded. "With two important surgeries and two important periods of recovery."

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About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.