James Corden pits Manchester United stars in match against 50 children

The lack of players available for Manchester United's pre-season tour of the US may be driving Jose Mourinho round the bend, but even he managed to crack a smile as he welcomed TV personality James Corden to their training camp.

In what appears to be a skit for an upcoming episode of his popular Late, Late Show, the Gavin and Stacey star was given full access to the Portuguese manager and three first-team players in the form of Chris Smalling, Ander Herrera and Juan Mata.

The four Manchester United figures were pitted against roughly 50 adorably small children and Corden himself as they played a comical match at their US training base at the UCLA campus in California last week.

As the three outfield players attempted to string a few passes together while being crowded out by their pint-sized opponents, Mourinho stood in as a makeshift goalkeeper. The Portuguese also played in goal during a charity match at Loftus Road in September last year.

The pictures appear to suggest that Corden himself scored a goal from a corner, although there was a suspicious level of grappling going on against Smalling, albeit by people much smaller than himself. It was all done in jest, of course, and even Mourinho appeared to be enjoying himself.

That is a rare sight at this moment in time. The Portuguese has taken every chance to moan about his situation at the club and called on officials to back him in the transfer market or risk dropping out of contention for the Premier League title before the season has even begun.

'I would like two more players. I don't think I'm going to have two,' he said recently. 'I think it's possible I'm going to have one. I gave my club a list of five names a few months ago. I wait to see if it's possible to have one of these players.'

The World Cup has left Mourinho chronically short of first-team players during their summer tour as key players such as Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard are still enjoying their holidays after all going deep into the tournament.

To make matters worse, Anthony Martial left to witness the birth of his child and is yet to return.

'He has the baby and after the baby is born — beautiful baby, full of health, thank God — he should be here and he is not here,' the United manager said in a recent press conference.

He has also shared his fear that the absence of so many key players in America has forced others to risk themselves unnecessarily. 'The accumulation of matches is killing progressively my brave boys, because I have some brave boys,' he said.

'We have four or five players that are 'dead' because they care for the club. They try to give everything, even risking themselves because they don't want to let all the kids play by themselves against Milan, Liverpool and Real Madrid.

'I just hope the boys on deserved holidays take care of themselves a little bit and somebody wants to do what Rashford and Jones do, which is to be back a little bit earlier to try to help the team because for the beginning of the season we are going to be in trouble.'

Badgering the club for more investment has sent his relationship with Ed Woodward crashing to an all-time low. Sportsmail understands that United’s executive vice-chairman, is reluctant to release more funds to manager Mourinho, who has spent more than £70million so far on Brazil midfielder Fred, Portuguese right back Diogo Dalot and reserve goalkeeper Lee Grant.

Mourinho’s remarkable press conference following the 4-1 defeat by Liverpool on Saturday, in which he attacked anything and everything, shone a light on the ill-feeling around the club. He used the media as a platform to apply pressure to Woodward, who is holding firm in his decision not to release more transfer funds.

Instead, Mourinho has been told he must sell before buying and Marcos Rojo is expected to be one victim as they chase a deal for Leicester centre-back Harry Maguire. United have contacted Leicester over a deal and are ready to pay upwards of £65m for the defender who cost just £17m to sign from Hull last summer.