Mourinho hands Mkhitaryan lifeline by including him in Man Utd squad

Dom Farrell

Mourinho hands Mkhitaryan lifeline by including him in Man Utd squad image

Henrikh Mkhitaryan could return from his Manchester United exile after being named in Jose Mourinho's squad for the Europa League trip to Fenerbahce.

Man Utd reject Chicharito out to prove a point

Mkhitaryan has become a peripheral figure at Old Trafford since joining from Borussia Dortmund during the close season and last featured for the first team in the 2-1 derby loss to Manchester City in September, when he was substituted at halftime.

But the Armenia international is in the travelling party to Istanbul alongside injury plagued defender Phil Jones, who is yet to feature this term.

Anthony Martial is set to feature in attack and Zlatan Ibrahimovic may have the chance to address his recent goal drought, but Chris Smalling is absent once more, with Michael Carrick, Memphis Depay and Antonio Valencia all remaining in Manchester.

Bastian Schweinsteiger enjoyed a thaw in his relations with Mourinho this week as he returned to first-team training but the former Germany captain does not travel as he was not named in United's playing squad for the Europa League.

The 20-time English champion is level on six points in Group A with Feyenoord, which beat United 1-0 in September, while Fenerbahce is two points further back following a 4-1 thrashing at Old Trafford last time out.

Dom Farrell

Dom Farrell Photo

Dom is the senior content producer for Sporting News UK. He previously worked as fan brands editor for Manchester City at Reach Plc. Prior to that, he built more than a decade of experience in the sports journalism industry, primarily for the Stats Perform and Press Association news agencies. Dom has covered major football events on location, including the entirety of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup in Paris and St Petersburg respectively, along with numerous high-profile Premier League, Champions League and England international matches. Cricket and boxing are his other major sporting passions and he has covered the likes of Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Wladimir Klitschko, Gennadiy Golovkin and Vasyl Lomachenko live from ringside.