Mourinho confirms 37-year-old real lion will be out for a month

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s injury is a recurrence of the knee problem which kept him out for the closing months of last season and beginning of the current campaign.

Ibrahimovic returned from his career-threatening ligament injury well ahead of schedule last month, but his game time has been limited since then and he was absent from the squad for this evening’s goalless draw with Southampton.

Mourinho revealed after the game that the Swede is likely to miss the next month due to the setback, and has now confirmed that it is a problem with the same knee again.

“Zlatan is out for a month, the same knee. (It’s) an incredible problem,” he told BBC Sport.

“A 37-year-old man, a lion like he says, a real lion, but it’s not easy. Now he had a little recurrence and one month out.”

United are also expected to be without Romelu Lukaku for at least the next two matches after he was stretchered off with a head injury during the Southampton stalemate.