Jose Mourinho insists Manchester United star Alexis Sanchez 'has to play' after US tour delay with coach short of options

Heading Stateside | Sanchez
Man Utd via Getty Images
Eleanor Crooks21 July 2018

Jose Mourinho is expecting Alexis Sanchez to be ready for action when he joins up with Manchester United's tour squad after initially being denied entry to the United States.

The forward was left back in Manchester when the squad headed across the Atlantic last weekend because of what the club said was a "personal administrative issue", which it was hoped would soon be resolved to allow him to join the pre-season party at a later date.

The administrative issue was assumed to be a problem with his visa after he accepted a 16-month suspended prison sentence in Spain earlier this year over a tax issue.

In Pictures | Manchester United vs Club America | 20/07/2018

1/17

Sanchez posted a picture on Instagram on Thursday accompanied by the caption: "The last training in Manchester, soon" followed by a picture of the US, and United later confirmed the Chilean would be flying to the States.

Sanchez has been busy working on his fitness alone at United's Carrington training base, and Mourinho said of the forward: "It’s about when Alexis lands and, when he lands, he has to play.

"Because he trained with us for five days before we departed to LA and we left one fitness coach behind with him.

"Of course, it is individual training but, when he arrives, he has to play. If he is coming, he has to play."

The first game of United's tour ended in a 1-1 draw against Club America on Friday, with games against San Jose Earthquakes, AC Milan, Liverpool and Real Madrid coming up.

In Pictures | Manchester United US pre-season tour 2018

1/11

Before Sanchez was given the green light to fly to the US, Mourinho had been desperate for the Chilean to play given his lack of forward options for the start of the new season.

"Hopefully, he can at least join us later because it is important to work with Juan Mata, Alexis and Anthony Martial, who we think are the players we have for the start of the season," he explained.

"There is no (Romelu) Lukaku, (Marcus) Rashford or (Jesse) Lingard (all of whom were involved in the World Cup semi-finals)."#

Additional reporting by the Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in