Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial both remain sidelined for Manchester United's Europa League round-of-16 second leg against Rostov on Thursday, manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed.
Sources told ESPN FC earlier this week that Rooney was in contention to return to the United squad after missing Monday's 1-0 FA Cup quarterfinal defeat against Chelsea through a leg injury.
However, Mourinho said that the England captain has not recovered in time for the game along with Martial, who also missed the Chelsea clash with an injury.
"[Rooney's] injured -- some kick in his knee area, so he can't even come out to the pitch," Mourinho told a news conference. "He stays inside the medical department.
"[Martial] was injured for the Chelsea match and the Tuesday morning training session, so he's out of my mind. I don't think about him. We have the same players we had in the last match, plus [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic returning to the Europa League."
Mourinho says Rooney and Martial are still out: "We have the same players we had in the last match plus Ibrahimovic returning." #UEL pic.twitter.com/1Ex5qlH96e
- Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 15, 2017
Ibrahimovic missed the Chelsea defeat due to a three-match domestic suspension, but is eligible to play in the Europa League.
"It's a big boost but we never cry about absences," Mourinho said of Ibrahimovic. "Now we have him and next match we don't. We are always positive, when one player is out then another one can play."
United head into Thursday's second leg at Old Trafford following a 1-1 draw at Rostov last week, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan's opener being cancelled out by Aleksandr Bukharov's equaliser.
"We know that the 1-1 result leaves everything open," Mourinho said. "We know Rostov is a very good team. We are so many matches away and some of those are against big opponents who have experience in the Champions League. 1-1 is a very doubtful result.
"Tomorrow we go with everything that we have, the fans will give us a little bit of extra energy. Tomorrow we believe we can cope with the situation and reach the quarterfinal. Its' a very important competition for us, we said that from the beginning. In every match since day one, we've played with a very strong selection."