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Zlatan Ibrahimovic has forced himself into Jose Mourinho's plans for the coming season with the speed and quality of his recovery from a double cruciate ligament rupture.

The Manchester United manager expects Ibrahimovic to be ready to play football again in January and has sanctioned the offer of a new contract to the centre forward.

Medical prognoses that last season's leading goalscorer should now be available for the second half of a critical campaign for United have enabled a reassessment of the club's transfer strategy.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

Instead of recruiting two new frontline strikers, Ibrahimovic can be added to the squad mid-season to share playing time with Marcus Rashford and summer signing Romelu Lukaku.

Limiting this window's spend on centre forwards to Lukaku's fee (an initial £75million to Everton) will open up recruitment budget for the other positions Mourinho wants reinforced ahead of his team's return to Champions League football.

The Portuguese has asked for a new full back, holding midfielder and a player capable of playing across the second line of his attack as a winger or number 10. Ibrahimovic's presence should also aid Lukaku's development as a top-level striker.

(Image: REUTERS)

Mourinho 's initial plans for the 2017-18 campaign had included securing Ibrahimovic to the second year of the one-plus-one season deal the Swede signed last July.

Before the contract extension had been finalised, however, the 35-year-old suffered the worst injury of his storied career when he hyperextended his right knee while pursuing an added-time Europa League quarter-final winner.

Ibrahimovic, who had been suffering fatigue as a result of United's intense fixture schedule, ruptured both posterior and anterior cruciate ligaments in the April 20 tie with Anderlecht, an extremely rare injury for an athlete of his age.

The expected recovery period was nine to twelve months with significant doubts expressed within the club that he would be able to play again at the same level.

(Image: PA)

“For Zlatan, in this phase of his career, it is really, really hard,” said Mourinho later that week.

Ibrahimovic's public response was to fully commit himself to the rehabilitation process and to returning to the pitch. "First of all, thank you for all the support and love," Ibrahimovic said.

"It's no news I got injured so I will be out of football for a while. I will go through this like everything else and come back even stronger. So far I played with one leg so it shouldn't be any problem.

"One thing is for sure, I decide when it's time to stop and nothing else. Giving up is not an option. See you soon."

Following reconstructive surgery in the United States, Ibrahimovic returned to Manchester United to work on his rehabilitation, and has continued the process as an out-of-contract player at the invitation of the club.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

He joined United's travelling party for the Europa League Final in Stockholm, after which Mourinho made special mention of his contribution to that victory.

“I think it so unfair what happened to him,” Mourinho said.

“Sometimes football is unfair, sometimes life is unfair. I think it is so unfair. I think for him this night would be an amazing night if he was on the pitch. In his hometown, in the stadium where his statue will be, his actual club in Manchester United. A season where he made an amazing impact.

(Image: Getty Images)

“I'm really, really, really sorry about Zlatan not to play this Final. But he played. He played. He played outside with the other [injured and suspended] guys – Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw, Ashley Young, Eric Bailly – they were playing behind the bench, they were shouting, they were doing everything.

“And on the top of it Zlatan in Swedish he told the ball boys in the second half to take it easy, so even outside he was playing for us. So I'm so pleased that he gets finally in his amazing career he gets finally a European trophy.”