Mourinho believes Bailly has a 'serious' injury

A further update from the club has revealed the Ivory Coast centre-back picked up an ankle problem with his national team and could require surgery. 

Bailly has been missing since the 1-0 defeat to Chelsea at the start of November and it is understood a decision will be taken over whether an operation is required in the next few days.

"I think his injury is serious," stated Mourinho, following the 1-0 win over Bournemouth that saw Phil Jones and Chris Smalling paired in defence.

"I don’t know [how long he will be out] but his is an injury that comes from the last time he went with the international team and then we are trying a conservative treatment. But, if the conservative treatment is not resulting, probably he will have a surgery procedure but let’s wait a little bit more."

When asked about the specifics of the injury, Mourinho replied: "I'm not a doctor, I think the doctor can inform you. There’s nothing to hide, but I don’t want to be speaking about it."

The manager was asked if Bailly's season could be over but he preferred to focus on his other options at the back. It is believed that the ankle injury is not likely to rule the African ace out for as long as that.

"I don't want to be so pessimistic," stressed the boss. "I want to leave it with a doctor. Today, I played [Chris] Smalling and [Phil] Jones and we had [Victor] Lindelof and [Daley] Blind on the bench. Marcos Rojo was injured [against Manchester City] but nothing really big.

"During the whole season, we've had problems with central defenders but because the number is four or five, we manage always to have [players available] and Chris Smalling is playing amazingly well for seven or eight matches in a row maybe, so we are fine."

WHY MKHITARYAN WAS ABSENT

Mourinho was asked about Mkhitaryan's absence in his post-match press conference following the Reds' 1-0 victory over Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

The boss outlined that his plethora of options in midfield and attacking positions means that there is competition for every place in the squad. 

"I can only have six [outfield] players on the bench and I try to have some balance on the bench – I had two defenders and [Daley] Blind who can play in different areas. I had Ashley Young to cover me all of the wing and the wing-back position.

"I had [Ander] Herrera as a midfield player, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] as a striker and Marcus [Rashford] as a second striker and winger. I played [Anthony] Martial, [Juan] Mata and [Jesse] Lingard in the team. To have Micki means that I don’t have one of them and, in this moment, I believe the other ones they deserve to play."

Mkhitaryan will be working hard in a bid to return when the Reds return to action on Sunday in the Premier League against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns (kick-off 14:15 GMT).