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Matty Willock has been promoted to the Manchester United first-team squad and could be on the bench against West Brom in the Premier League for the first time.

The 20-year-old midfielder arrived with teammates at The Lowry Hotel on Friday evening where Juan Mata and Luke Shaw were not spotted by photographers.

London-born Willock joined United from Reading in 2012 and his brothers, Chris and Joe, are still in The Gunners' academy.

Willock has trained with the senior squad already this season and scored for the Reserves at the Etihad Stadium and Anfield. He played regularly in United's Under-21 title-winning side last season.

Axel Tuanzebe could also make the 18 having travelled with the squad to Middlesbrough in March. Injuries to Phil Jones and Chris Smalling have kept the England Under-20 international involved with pre-match preparations.

The Congo-born centre half made his United debut against Wigan in January and has spent the majority of the season training with the first-team squad.

Captain Wayne Rooney arrived separately and so did Anthony Martial, Joel Pereira and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who all live in the city centre. Daley Blind also resides nearby and could have rendezvoused with teammates.

United are without a number of players through injury and suspension ahead of the first of nine April fixtures in the league and Europa League.

"They are not important," Mourinho said of United's unavailable players. "The important ones are the ones who are ready to play, that's the way we have to think.

"We cannot be here crying or speaking about the players who are not available to pay. You know that Zlatan and Ander Herrera are suspended, that Herrera is two matches ban for that episode against Chelsea. You know what happened in the English national team with Smalling and Jones, you know we have also Poga injured.

"But I repeat they are not importat. The important players are the one who are ready to lay, the ones I trust and the ones who are going to give everything tomorrow to try and keep us in the fight for the top four."

West Brom's visit marks United's first game without Bastian Schweinsteiger after he left to join the MLS team Chicago Fire.

"He is in the category of players I feel sorry for something I did to him," Mourinho said. "I don't want to speak about him as a player, I don't want to speak about him as a payer I would or would not buy. I want to speak about him as a professional, as a human being.

"It was the last thing I told him before he left, 'I was not right with you once. I have to be right to you now.' So when he was asking me to let him leave, I had to say yes, you can leave because I did it once, I cannot do it twice.

"So I feel sorry for the first period with him, he knows that, I am happy that he knows, because I told him. I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a very good influence in training. So I could not stop him to go, even though I know we have so many matches and probably would need him for a few matches or a few periods.

(Image: Eamonn and James Clarke)

"But I had to let him go and now publicly wish him and his wife a very happy life in Chicago.

When asked if he regretted Schweinsteiger's treatment, Mourinho replied: "I do, yeah. I would let him be in the squad. I knew in that moment we have too many players.

"If you remember we had many players in this doubtful situation, we still had Schneiderlin, Depay, Andreas Pereira, Tyler Blackett and James Wilson, a huge squad in the beginning.

"But after knowing him [Schweinsteiger] as a professional and as a person, the way he was behaving and the way he was respecting my decisions as a manager, yes I regret, and no problem for me admitting it and he knows that because I told him.

Follow United vs West Brom here.

Confirmed squad members

David de Gea

Sergio Romero

Joel Pereira

Antonio Valencia

Timothy Fosu-Mensah

Matteo Darmian

Eric Bailly

Axel Tuanzebe

Marcos Rojo

Michael Carrick

Matty Willock

Marouane Fellaini

Jesse Lingard

Ashley Young

Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Wayne Rooney

Marcus Rashford

Anthony Martial

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