Mourinho confirms Bailly will have ankle surgery

Eric Bailly is set to be sidelined for the next “two or three months” after the decision was taken for the Manchester United defender to have an operation on his injured ankle.

The Ivory Coast centre-back has been missing since the defeat to Chelsea at the start of November and manager Jose Mourinho revealed after Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth that it was a “serious injury”.

The boss has now confirmed Bailly is to undergo surgery in a bid to rectify the problem but is comfortable with the options at his disposal in central defence.

Speaking to MUTV ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to West Bromwich Albion, Mourinho said: “Bailly goes to surgery – the decision is made. I don’t say [he’s out] for the rest of the season but it’s for the next two or three months. 

“But now we have [Phil] Jones back and we have [Chris] Smalling, even [Daley] Blind, so it’s a position we have good cover in but of course we’ll miss the player.”

Mourinho also confirmed United have no new injuries following the hard-fought victory over the Cherries and will head to The Hawthorns with the same group of players. That suggests Marcos Rojo (head) and Marouane Fellaini (knee) will be absent again. 

Paul Pogba serves the final game of his suspension but Luke Shaw could be in line to retain his place at left-back after impressing against Bournemouth, in his first Premier League start since April.

Sunday's fixture is the first of three games in seven days for United in a packed festive schedule and Mourinho was asked how he would manage his resources.

“A bit of recovering, a bit of rotation,” he said. “I’ll change a few players from match to match because I think it is almost impossible for players to play all these matches in December and the beginning of January.”

United’s game at West Brom kicks off at 14:15 GMT on Sunday, with leaders Manchester City hosting fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur the previous evening.