Manchester United FC news: Jose Mourinho explains decision to recall Bastian Schweinsteiger to first-team training
Jose Mourinho has explained the recalling of Bastian Schweinsteiger to Manchester United first-team training as a 'human' decision.
The German midfielder has not been part of Mourinho’s plans since the Portuguese’s appointment as head coach over the summer, and the club even wrote him off as an asset in their latest published accounts - stating he was ‘a player no longer considered to be a member of the first team playing squad’.
And this still rings true, even though he is back working with Mourinho and the senior players in training at United’s Aon Training Complex in Carrington, having originally been banished to work with only the youth and reserve squads.
Mourinho, speaking ahead of the Red Devils’ Europa League clash against Fenerbahce, revealed he has brought Schweinsteiger back into the fold to make up the numbers in training - a ‘human’ decision for a player who has been nothing but a professional despite being cast out.
His return also allows him to work his way up to full fitness, with Mourinho making it clear this is to ensure the German is ready to play first-team football - should he leave Old Trafford in the January transfer window.
"It is a decision based on the fact that we are in a period in the season where it is really difficult to train with everybody together," Mourinho said.
"The tactical work I like to do with 20 or 21 players, so to have 23 or 24 together at the same time, that situation doesn't happen anymore because in this moment, the next day after we play, the players who played, they train in a separate group and do a specific recovering session.
"So instead of 23 or 24, it becomes 13 or 14, and with injuries sometime 10 or 11.
"Many times we go to the academy to bring in some young boys to have a group with the perfect numbers.
"Looking at Bastian and the way he was working professionally, every day with the fitness coach, we think it is a human decision and a professional decision to bring him back to the team and he will be much better prepared and in much better condition in case his future decision is to leave the club. He will be much better prepared to go direct to competition.”
Despite the hints that Schweinsteiger’s recall is not a route back into competitive action for the 32-year-old, Mourinho did admit the German could become an ‘option’ should United be hit hard by injuries in the coming months.
The manager added: "If he stays with us, he becomes one more option. In this moment we have no problems in midfield, like we have in defence, but if one day we have problems in midfield, he will be one more option for us.
"It is a human decision based on training numbers and methods, but also a decision that can be positive for the group. It is a good decision for us and for him."