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Jose Mourinho has suggested Juan Mata is on course to play again for Manchester United this season in another dig at Chris Smalling and Phil Jones.

Mata underwent groin surgery four weeks ago after Smalling injured Jones in England training and then suffered an injury on international duty which left him in a knee brace.

Mourinho recently said Mata was expected back towards the end of May and Smalling and Jones were scheduled to return in mid-May, however he now believes Mata will return to the side before the accident-prone pair.

"I think the first one to come back is Mata, which will give us another option in attack," Mourinho said. "But in reality what we need now is one of the two centre-backs to be back.

"We arrive in an extreme situation where, I think it must be unique in football, where we have two cruciate ligaments in the same match. In my career I had one in 17 years. One cruciate in 17 years. And now, against Anderlecht, I have two. In one match.

"We are very unlucky is the only thing we can say, and the other small injuries, the Pogba one, Valencia last week, are the injuries of fatigue, the accumulation of matches, which is normal. Smalling and Jones were with the English national team, training.

"So maybe it's a blessing, an opportunity to make the team stronger, maybe it's an opportunity to make them mentally stronger. Maybe it's a blessing, so let's see if they can comeback."

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