Manchester United forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic says he decided to stay on at the club for a further year in order to win the Premier League.

It was widely believed that the Swede would never play for United again after suffering knee ligament damage in April, but he since signed a new deal at the club. Despite not playing since April, Zlatan hopes to return before the end of the year, and says he is back to ‘finish what I started’.

And speaking to Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry, Zlatan admitted he had doubts over whether he would return, but says it was not the ending he wanted.

“I said I have come back to finish what I started,” he said.

“Everything I built up in the first season – obviously we won the three trophies – the ending for me was not the ending I wanted, or nobody wanted, especially after how the season went.

“The target is the Premier League. That is my target to finish.

“Everything I started in the first season, we will finish in the second one.

“In that moment when it happened, it was easier for me to say that I would come back because then I had a challenge.

“The challenge was that I never had a major injury, and all these people talking that ‘it’s over’ or ‘he’s too old’, all these doubts that I had in my whole career.

“When that happens, it triggers me because it gives me energy and an objective. I’m challenging what I am able to do, how far I can take my body.

“In the last years, when you’re thinking how many more years you are going to play, that is where you are hesitating.

“But the injury made it easy for me. I had one target, and that is to come back and play the game.

“I will walk out just as I came in, I will not walk out limping.

“I will walk out the way I want to walk out. Even if I have to walk on water I will do that also.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]