Bayern Munich open to Bastian Schweinsteiger discussions amid Manchester United exit talk

Bayern Munich appear open to talks over a potential return to Bavaria for Manchester United midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger. The 32-year-old, who relinquished his role as Germany captain and retired from international football last week, is facing an uncertain club future amid reports he has been told by Jose Mourinho he has no first-team future at Old Trafford.

Alongside Adnan Januzaj, Schweinsteiger was omitted from a 25-man United squad for Saturday's (30 July) 5-2 pre-season friendly victory over Galatasaray in Gothenburg, and his manager appeared to suggest after the match that he would not give "one single minute" to players who do not feature in his plans moving forward. He has since been training with the U23 squad amid rumoured interest from both AC and Inter Milan.

Bayern bigwig Karl-Heinz Rummenigge stated over the weekend that he was "100% convinced" that the player would not return to the Bundesliga and represent a rival club, instead suggesting that he would remain at United and perhaps even surprise Mourinho.

However, he now admits that the reigning Bundesliga champions would be open to discussion if Schweinsteiger did indeed express a wish to return to the club for he made 500 appearances for and won more than 20 major trophies with during a glorious 13-year stint with 'FC Hollywood' .

"Should he, in the future, express a desire to return in a different role, then we will discuss this with him," the chairman was quoted as saying by Sport Bild.

A future return to Bayern for Schweinsteiger is practically inevitable according to skipper Philip Lahm, who added: "It is important to get players who achieved a lot involved. Someone like Schweinsteiger is destined to work at Bayern again. He knows everyone here and knows about everything that is going on."

Schweinsteiger only joined United for a fee, possibly as low as £6.5m ($8.6m), in July 2015, signing a three-year contract and forming part of a high-profile summer recruitment drive under former Bayern boss Louis van Gaal that also included the additions of Memphis Depay, Morgan Schneiderlin, Matteo Darmian and Anthony Martial. However, he made just 31 appearances across all competitions and was sidelined for two months between January and March as a result of a knee injury sustained during the closing stages of a narrow FA Cup third-round victory over Sheffield United.

His comeback from that initial lay-off lasted just four matches before the 2014 World Cup winner suffered a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee during a training session on international duty. That second blow ruled him out for the rest of the season, although he recovered in time to feature for Germany at Euro 2016.

Schweinsteiger came off the bench to net a late goal against Ukraine in Die Mannschaft's Group C opener. He later appeared as a substitute against Northern Ireland, Slovakia and Italy, missing a penalty in a hectic shootout against the latter, before starting in the semi-final defeat to France and inexplicably committing the handball that allowed Antoine Griezmann to give Les Bleus a crucial breakthrough.