Manchester United's Alexis Sánchez set for "long" absence
José Mourinho expects to be without his midfielder for the foreseeable future after the Chile international suffered a hamstring injury.
Alexis Sánchez will be out for a "long time" after suffering an "aggressive muscular injury", according to Manchester United manager José Mourinho.
United announced on Thursday that the Chile forward had sustained a hamstring problem and, speaking ahead of Saturday's Premier League match against Southampton, Mourinho told reporters he expects to be without Sánchez for the foreseeable future.
"No scans yet but the player is experienced, the player knows what the injury is and also from the top of my experience, the painful scream and the way that the injury happens means I know he is going to be [out] for a long time," he said.
"It is not a little muscular injury that [means in] one week or 10 days the player is ready."
Centre-back Victor Lindelof is set to miss most of the pre-Christmas period with a muscular injury and Mourinho's stated Sánchez's setback is worse, with the ex-Arsenal man not expecting to feature again until 2019.
"For me, and also for Alexis, the feeling before the scans is that the grade is different than the Lindelof one and the Lindelof one is not an easy one," he added.
"Alexis has what I used to call an aggressive muscular injury."