Manchester United ace ruled out of Sunday’s EFL Cup final

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed Henrikh Mkhitaryan will miss the EFL Cup final after failing to recover from the muscle injury picked up in the Europa League on Thursday.

Mkhitaryan, 28, opened the scoring for United against Saint-Etienne in the second leg of their Europa League clash on Thursday but tweaked a leg muscle in the process of guiding Juan Mata’s cross towards the far post.

The former Borussia Dortmund creator was replaced by Marcus Rashford after 25 minutes and Mourinho has now confirmed he will not be ready in time for Sunday’s final against Southampton at Wembley.

After a slow start to the season in which Mourinho froze the Armenia international out of the team, Mkhitaryan has developed into an essential player for United in recent weeks and his loss will be a huge blow this weekend as United look to pick up the first piece of silverware of the season.

In fact, Mkhitaryan has played a direct hand in five goals in his last six matches for United in all competitions.

For more stats on Henrikh Mkhitaryan, click here to visit his WhoScored player page