Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has never been shy of criticising national teams for their treatment of his players, and the ongoing saga with Phil Jones’ latest injury shows just how ticked off the Portuguese is with England manager Gareth Southgate.
Southgate opted to pick United defender Phil Jones during the recent international break, where England faced both Germany and Brazil in friendly matches. This is despite the centre-back already recovering from an injury he sustained recently at United.
England not only chose Jones in the squad for the friendlies, but also started him in the game against Germany – a game in which he was given pain-killing injections for in order to play through the pain.
This was clearly not the right thing to do by any means, as Jones was forced off with a thigh injury after just 20 or so minutes.
As a result, Jones was not available for United’s win over Newcastle on Saturday – prompting criticism from Mourinho, who claims he was not consulted about the injections.
When asked if he had spoken to England boss Gareth Southgate, Mourinho said: “No. I think it’s a conversation between doctors because I’m not a doctor.
“I just get information from my doctor, and the information from my doctor was that they consult him in relation to Phil Jones with a little problem in the knee when the national team starts working.
“But then no more contact. The local injections before the match, we were not informed [about]. Apart from that, I don’t have to speak with Southgate. I just wish [him] good and want him to be successful.”
Southgate chose not to pick defender Chris Smalling in his England squad, something Mourinho joked he is happy about.
“I hope he doesn’t get his spot because somebody comes injured, he comes injured,” said Mourinho.
“Jones comes injured and [with] real injuries because there are other injuries where the players cannot play in the national team on the Wednesday and are perfect for the Saturday.
“Our injuries in the national team are real injuries. Jones does not play tomorrow and I can say in advance he doesn’t play the weekend too, so you can say that it is a proper injury.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]