Pogba, centre, posted this picture with Fellaini and Adnan Januzaj as Mourinho called on his players to return

José Mourinho has called on players such as Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard to cut short their holidays to help their struggling Manchester United team-mates.

Mourinho’s farcical pre-season continued in the early hours of yesterday morning when he confirmed after a bruising 4-1 loss to Liverpool that Nemanja Matic would miss the start of the season with an abdominal injury.

Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones will report to Carrington this week ahead of schedule as they want to help United to avoid a slow start to the season, and their manager wants some of the other players who made the last four of the World Cup to follow suit.

“I hope that the boys on deserved holidays take care of themselves a bit