Jose Mourinho has accused the Premier League and Football Association of not giving "an S" [s***] about the fortunes of English clubs in Europe and believes they are happy to see players flogged to breaking point.

The Manchester United manager believes the money sloshing around the English game is largely responsible for the frenetic fixture schedule that he fears is crippling his players this season and undermining English prospects in Europe.

But despite recognising the benefit of the huge financial income Premier League clubs receive from bumper television deals, Mourinho believes it is not too much to ask the authorities to apply “a little bit of common sense” as far as scheduling is concerned and claims all managers would welcome it.

Mourinho said he is at a loss to explain why United’s league game away to Middlesbrough kicks off at lunchtime on Sunday as opposed to later in the day or on Monday given that his team faced FC Rostov in the second leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie on Thursday night.

The trip to Middlesbrough will be United’s fifth game in 16 days and Mourinho blamed the accumulation of games for the hamstring injury suffered by Paul Pogba in Thursday’s Europa League tie against FC Rostov.