Injured Manchester United star ready to hand Mourinho a boost

Juan Mata has revealed he is working hard to return to first-team action before the end of the season to hand Jose Mourinho with a welcomed boost.

The United ace has been sidelined since mid-March after undergoing groin surgery and had initially been ruled out for the remainder of the season.

Surprisingly, Mata developed into a key player under Mourinho prior to injury and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic out for the remainder of the campaign it would be more than handy to have another attacking player at his disposal.

United are in the Europa League semi-finals and still have a faint hope of qualifying for the Champions League next season by finishing in the top four and Mata has revealed he hopes to play a part in that.

“As you can imagine, this month has been a bit too long for me due to my injury,” he wrote on his blog. “I had never been in a situation like this before (I’ve been very lucky), but the truth is I’m feeling much better now and I hope to be back with the team soon, to try to help in the last spell of the season.

“I hope so, because that’s all I want: being always available to help and to contribute as much as I can both on and off the pitch.”

Mata isn’t expected to be ready to play in the Manchester Derby on Thursday or their clash with Swansea at the weekend, but there is hope the Spain international could return to first-team action next month.

Despite missing each of United’s last seven matches, only Zlatan Ibrahimovic (28 goals) has scored more times for the club in all competitions this season than Mata (10).

For more stats on Juan Mata, click here to visit his WhoScored player page