Zlatan Ibrahimovic is being “frozen out” at Manchester United says the striker’s close friend and former Chelsea star Adrian Mutu. 

Ibrahimovic hasn’t appeared for the Jose Mourinho’s side this year – his last appearance coming at Burnley on Boxing Day in a 1-0 win for the Red Devils.

The Sweden international was given a new contract at the club after rapidly recovering from a knee injury that cut short his debut campaign with United last year.

However despite his return from injury, the former Barcelona and Inter Milan star has found playing time hard to come by.

This season Ibra has made two starts in all competitions and was left out of the squad for the defeat against Sevilla in mid-week, despite training with the team the day before.

And former Chelsea star Mutu, who spent time with Ibrahimovic at Juventus back in 05/06, believes he knows why the veteran Swedish striker hasn’t been involved.

“Mourinho doesn’t care about the performance, only the result,” Mutu told Telekom Sport Romania.

“I have information that Ibrahimovic is not injured, he’s just cold with Mourinho right now.”

Mutu endured a tempestuous relationship with Mourinho during their time together at Chelsea.

The Romanian striker was let go from the London club after testing positive for cocaine only months after his move from Serie A side Parma.