Jesse Lingard has been living it up in Los Angeles as he enjoys a post-World Cup break before returning to Manchester United. The midfielder has been dancing by the pool with pals, but there is no sign of Marcus Rashford in his entourage.Meanwhile, his club-mates have been doing two-a-day training sessions at UCLA a few miles away as pre-season training ramps up.
Lingard, 25, has shared pictures of his Los Angeles villa, complete with pool and hillside view, while dancing to Drake’s new track ‘In My Feelings’ and busting out the ‘JLingz’ hand gesture.Rashford posted a picture of himself at a poolside bar after an encouraging World Cup with England. The 20-year-old played as many as 68 games for club and country last season, including England’s run to the semi-finals in Russia.
Rashford and Lingard are best mates, but after such a long season for United and the Three Lions, are probably sick of the sight of each other. Paul Pogba has also been spotted in LA after enjoying some party time with the France stars following their second World Cup triumph.# Jose Mourinho is understood to have granted Lingard, Rashford, Ashley Young, Pogba, Romelu Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini three weeks off ahead of the Premier League season.
United played the first of several pre-season friendlies on Thursday night in a 1-1 draw with Mexican side Club America. Fellow academy products Scott McTominay, Demetri Mitchell and Andreas Pereira all started, while Dutch youngster Tahith Chong also caught the eye with a fleet-footed display on the right wing. Mourinho has voiced his displeasure at the nature of United’s pre-season, with so many stars off on holiday, while Alexis Sanchez turned up late with visa issues but the club have also failed to sell out many of their pre-season games.
Meanwhile, Alexis Sanchez has flown out to Los Angeles to join his Manchester United team-mates on their pre-season tour of the United States. The Chile international missed the opening game of the tour – a 1-1 draw with Mexican side Club America in Pheonix – after initially being denied a US visa.
Manchester United confirmed Sanchez was on his way on Friday after they tweeted a picture of him from their official account with the caption: ‘Alexis Sanchez is en route to #MUTOUR.’Sanchez was delayed from the tour after visa complications and had to make the 11-hour flight to the States 6 days later.The 29-year-old accepted a 16-month suspended jail sentence in February for tax fraud and his conviction had made it difficult for him to enter the US.
Now that the Visa issue has been resolved, Sanchez is expected to feature in the next game on Sunday against San Jose Earthquakes.Jose Mourinho is now looking forward to Sanchez joining the team on tour after complaining about missing so many players due to to their World Cup exertions.Mourinho played Anthony Martial, Juan Mata and 16-year-old Mason Greenwood up front in the opening game against Club America.
Mourinho said: “It is not about when he can, but when he has to.”We have no players and especially in attack we have no players. Today it was Martial and when Martial left the pitch was Mata and when Mata went to the sides it was a kid that who trained with us for the first time in this pre-season.”
Mourinho added: “No Lukaku, no Rashford, not here and probably not for the start of the Premier League.So it’s about when Alexis lands and when he lands he has to play because he trained with us five days before we depart to LA and we left one fitness coach behind with him. Of course, it’s individual training but when he arrives he has to play.”
“It is individual training and when he arrives he has to play. If he’s coming he has to play.”