Johannesburg: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that goalkeeper David de Gea will start for the club in FA Cup final match against Chelsea to be held at the Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
United’s regular ‘cup goalkeeper’ Sergio Romero has featured in all the FA Cup games before he was forced to miss the semi-finals due to a back injury.
Romero sustained the injury on the international duty during Argentina’s shocking 6-1 defeat to Spain on March 27. He later made a return during United’s 1-0 win over Watford on the final day of the Premier League season.
And Mourinho insisted that as Romero has just come back from a serious injury, the Old Trafford club have decided to go with De Gea at Wembley on Saturday.
“He (Romero) was injured for a long, long time.He was injured for around two and something months.He didn’t play some matches that normally would be his matches, his semi-final against Tottenham, a couple more matches before the final,” Sport24 quoted Mourinho, as saying.
“He really only trained one week before the Watford match – and a bit more before – and that is the reason,” he added.
Mourinho, however, played down that he is picking up De Gea for the FA Cup final because he has more faith on him.
“It is not about trust, it is not about my confidence in him. And I played the Europa League final with Sergio, so it is not about confidence or no confidence, it is about the process of the last couple of months, since he had an important injury against Spain,” the Portuguese manager said.
The FA Cup final gives chance to Mourinho to end a second-successive campaign with at least one trophy after he picked the EFL Cup and the Europa League last season.(ANI)