Eric Bailly To Miss West Ham Game

Manchester United defender Eric Bailly will miss up to 8 matches for the club as he will be away on international duty with Ivory Coast.

Jose Mourinho’s summer signing Eric Bailly is set to play for Ivory Coast in AFCON and won’t be available to play for his club during that period. The 22-year-old centre-back has been in brilliant form in his first season itself at Old Trafford.

Earlier this season, he missed six weeks of action due to knee ligament damage sustained during a match against Chelsea. He has recovered from the injury, and was included in the starting eleven in the last game. On Saturday, he played 90 minutes against Middlesbrough at Old Trafford, where Manchester United won the match 2-1.

Mourinho confirmed that Bailly will join the international team on January 2^nd. Therefore he will miss Manchester United’s game against West Ham United. This means that the Portuguese manager will have to rotate his defense in the next few games.

“Bailly is leaving – he goes to the national team,” Mourinho said. “He has to be with them on 2 January. We asked them for him to be on 3 January but they refused, so he cannot play against West Ham.

“I know that I lose Bailly for a month and I’m going to have Smalling, Rojo and Jones for, I think, eight matches. So I decided to play Eric [against Middlesbrough] and it was good to have him on the pitch because, one-on-one at the back, he’s the best because he’s very fast.”

Manchester United are currently on a 6 match winning streak across all competitions, and will be looking to extend that. The recent performances of Marcos Rojo and Phil Jones have provided Jose Mourinho with enough options in defense.

 

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