Jose Mourinho was asked about Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s ruptured knee ligaments. Mourinho declined to say whether Ibrahimovic would remain with Manchester United next season.

“The future is a big surgery and a long period of recovery but the future is also in the hands of a very strong guy - mentally very, very strong - who wrote immediately on his social media that he will stop when he wants, not when people think, so it looks to me he will not give up and will fight and I’m really pleased with that because that’s the Zlatan I know. He fought all his life, that’s what I told him: ‘You fought all your life since you were born, I don’t see a reason for not fighting [now]’.”

Asked if Ibrahimovic had a future at the club, Mourinho replied: “I don’t know, I’m not interested in it, I don’t care about it, I just want the difficult surgery to go [well]. We think he’s in fabulous hands, then (he has to) recover from the injury, prepare himself for the next step and I think the next step will always be something he wants.

“In a period of doubts about his future, I always said that he is much more important than myself and what I want. It’s what he want. I always want the players to be happy and choose their future and I think this is what is going to happen. But now, before such important surgery, I think it’s a waste of time to speak about what next.”