Jose Mourinho has revealed that he will again make wholesale changes for Manchester United's final league game of the season against Watford on Sunday, including returns for Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.
The attacking pair were overlooked on Thursday as United drew 0-0 at West Ham to clinch second place in the table, with Mourinho choosing instead to start with Alexis Sanchez and Jesse Lingard up front.
But, with the manager looking to keep players fresh ahead of the FA Cup final, he has said he will shuffle the pack again at the weekend without calling upon the likes of Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes from the club's youth team.
"I will play some players that didn’t play on Thursday," he said of his selection for Sunday's game. "I play [Sergio] Romero, I play Daley Blind, I play [Eric] Bailly, I play Rashford, I play Martial, I play [Juan] Mata, but I have every player apart from [Marouane] Fellaini and [Romelu] Lukaku available and I don’t go to the young players.”
Michael Carrick will also start, but Mourinho is planning a special send-off for the club captain as he plays at Old Trafford for the final time before retiring to become a first-team coach.
"If we lose the match against West Ham and we need the point against Watford, I play Carrick the same," Mourinho added. "He is going to start the match as the captain. He's not going to end the match because I want him to leave that pitch alone and I want him to feel what the Manchester United supporters feel in relation to him.
"I am not so sad as I normally am when my players end their career because he’s going to be with us. He's going to be even closer to me than he was as a player, so it's just an emotional moment because it's the end of the career of a fantastic player. So he starts the match but I will make the change in some moment so he can leave the pitch alone."
The boss also gave an update on top-scorer Lukaku, who is touch and go to make next week's cup final against Chelsea at Wembley having picked up an ankle injury against Arsenal at the end of April.
"We hope he can play the final. He's in Belgium having his treatment with communication between the doctors in Belgium and our medical department, and we are just waiting to see if it's possible for him to be involved in the final – if not starting then at least he can be on the bench."
