Jose Mourinho is ready to throw Alexis Sanchez straight into action against San Jose Earthquakes this weekend despite the Chilean’s belated arrival in America.
Sanchez is expected to fly out on Friday to join up with Manchester United’s pre-season tour after he was finally granted a visa to travel to the US.
Ideally, Mourinho would like to give the former Arsenal player more time to adjust after four days training on his own at Carrington and an 11-hour flight to California.
However, the absence of Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard after the World Cup means that Sanchez may have little choice but to play against the MLS side in Santa Clara after working with his teammates for one day in LA.
‘It is not about when he can play, but when he has to,’ said Mourinho, who played Anthony Martial, Juan Mata and finally 16-year-old Mason Greenwood up front in the opening game against Club America.
‘We have no players and especially in attack. Thursday was Martial and when Martial left the pitch it was Mata. When Mata went to the sides, it was a kid who has trained with us for the first time in this pre-season.
‘No Lukaku, no Rashford, not here and probably not for the start of the Premier League. So it’s about when Alexis lands and when he lands he has to play because he trained with us five days before we depart to LA and we left one fitness coach behind with him. Of course, it’s individual training but when he arrives he has to play. If he's coming, he has to play.’
Mourinho was satisfied with United’s 1-1 draw in Phoenix after Mata scored a late equaliser against a Club America side about to start the Mexican season.
‘It was a good training session for us and for them,’ added the United boss. ‘They start the league this week so they are in a more advanced stage than we are, but for them it was a good training.
‘Both teams fought for a result. The result not the most important thing, but the players fought for the result and made the game quite nice.
‘In the first half we were the best team and had the best chances. In the second half, they were stronger than us. They scored and without the only striker we have here we had to try to go for it. The players showed their intention so was it was okay.’
Substitute Tahith Chong had a hand in the equaliser and Mourinho paid tribute to the 18-year-old winger. He said: ‘I have plans to make him train the most possible times with us because that increases his evolution, but he has to play where he belongs; he has to play in the academy and develop physically because physically is where he is not ready.
‘Technically he is very good, tactically he understands the game and he understands his position. But from the physical point of view, when the game gets into contact situations, he is in trouble, he is fragile, he is still a kid.
‘But the talent is there, the personality is there, the passion to play, the humility to learn, so this is a fantastic experience for him.
'If he can play like today, 20 or 25 minutes in every one of these five matches, and if during the season he trains with us and has a couple of occasions to play minutes with us, he is one of the good kids we have. It is not for today but for the tomorrow he is a good kid.’