Jose Mourinho says Alexis Sanchez will play as soon as he arrives in the United States for Manchester United’s pre-season tour. The Chile international missed the opening game of the tour – a 1-1 draw with Mexican side Club America in Pheonix – along with all United’s World Cup players, after initially being denied a US visa.
The issue has now been resolved but Mourinho is unsure if Sanchez will be available for the next game against San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday.
“I don’t even know if he is flying, if he is in Los Angeles or if he is in Manchester – I have no idea about it,” he said.
“There will be no [Romelu Lukaku] or [Marcus] Rashford, for sure, and we have to try with what we have. It’s not about if he [Sanchez] can play, it’s about when he has to. When Martial left the pitch, it was (Juan) Mata [leading the attack]. When Mata went to the sides, it was a kid that trained with us for the first time this pre-season [Mason Greenwood].There’s no Lukaku or Rashford here and probably not even for the start of the Premier League, so it’s about when Alexis lands and when he lands, he has to play.
Sanchez was unable to fly out to the USA with United when they initially left for their pre-season trip, with the club acknowledging a “personal administrative issue” prevented his travel.
It became apparent the problem related to not being granted a visa as a result of accepting a 16-month suspended jail sentence in Spain earlier in 2018 for tax fraud.US law rules that no person found guilty of fraud can be granted a visa to enter the country from overseas, but United were hopeful that Sanchez would be granted special dispensation to join up with his teammates through the waiver system.
Manager Jose Mourinho said in a news conference on Thursday that Sanchez was “very sad” about the situation which was “not good for him or me”, with the Portuguese coach suggesting United’s pre-season has got off to a poor start. But, Mourinho looks set to be handed a boost in the shape of Sanchez.
The Chile international posted on his official Instagram story a photo of himself and his personal trainer at United’s Carrington training base, with the caption saying: “The last training in Manchester. Soon [USA]”.
United play Liga MX side Club America in their first pre-season game in Glendale, Arizona on Friday, though that match is likely to come too soon for Sanchez.
A statement on United’s official website then confirmed Sanchez had been cleared, saying: “There is good news on the Alexis Sanchez front as the Chilean star has been given the green light to fly to the United States to join Tour 2018 presented by Aon.
“He is now due to fly across the Atlantic Ocean to Los Angeles in order to be reunited with the squad.”
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“He trained with us for five days before we departed to Los Angeles and we left one fitness coach behind with him to keep training with him. Of course, it’s individual training but when he arrives, he has to play.”
United went behind against Club America when Henry Martin scored in the 60th minute but Juan Mata equalised in the 78th minute.
Mourinho told MUTV: “After five days of training you need to play and it’s good to play against a team that is at three days’ distance from starting their Mexican league.So [they were] a team with intensity, a team with quality that pushed us to levels that we are not prepared for… so a good training session.”
After playing San Jose, United take part in the International Champions Cup with matches against AC Milan, Liverpool and Real Madrid.