Champions League: Zlatan Ibrahimovic Included In Man Utd’s Official Group Stage Squad As Chelsea Scuttle Diego Costa

Chris Wright

4th, September 2017

It’s like he never went away

Manchester United have included Zlatan Ibrahimovic in their 2017/18 Champions League group stage squad just weeks after it was announced that the monolithic Swede would be rejoining the club.

Ibrahimovic is still in the process of recovering from the cruciate knee injury that prematurely ended his 2016/17 campaign, but the paperwork has already been completed on a short-term contract that will see the 35-year-old return to United for the remainder of the current season as and when he makes it back to full fitness.

According to those in the know, Zlatan isn’t expected to return to the first-team before December, but Jose Mourinho has gone and included him in his Champions League pool regardless.

Also included is James Wilson, the 21-year-old striker who hasn’t played a competitive match for United since October of 2016 and wasn’t even assigned a senior squad number at the beginning of the Premier League season.

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Elsewhere, Chelsea have unsurprisingly taken the executive decision to overlook Diego Costa for their Champions League squad, given that the club are reportedly on the cusp of taking £50million’s worth of legal action against the striker for refusing to return to the club after being told he was surplus to requirements over the summer.

The big Liverpool news is that Nathaniel Clyne has been left out of Jurgen Klopp’s reckoning, thus hinting that the defender’s back injury may be more substantial than first thought, while Tottenham have decided to ditch misfit striker Vincent Janssen.

There are no huge surprises in Pep Guardiola’s Man City delegation, other than perhaps the inclusion of Eliaquim Mangala, who looked to have one foot out of the Etihad exit door not so very long ago.

Every single confirmed Champions League group stage squad can be viewed on the UEFA website if you so desire.

Posted in Champions League, Chelsea, Man Utd, Newsnow

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