Jose Mourinho reveals only one player will be allowed to leave Manchester United on loan in January

Jose Mourinho insists no first-team members of his Manchester United squad will be allowed to leave on loan in January, with third-choice goalkeeper Sam Johnstone the only possible departure.

With Zlatan Ibrahimovic virtually undroppable this season, Marcus Rashford has struggled for a starting roles in his favoured positions up front after a terrific break-out campaign last term. According to the Daily Telegraph, West Ham United made an ambitious plea to United to take the 19-year-old on loan in the January window, a report which has since been dismissed by Hammers boss Slaven Bilic.

Anthony Martial meanwhile has started just seven Premier League games this term in what has been a difficult second season at Old Trafford, with his agent recently claiming he and the France international are "studying" a loan offer from La Liga side Sevilla.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of Saturday's (31 December) clash with Middlesbrough however, Mourinho insisted there would only be one player leaving.

"Sam Johnstone is the only payer that will I allow to go on loan because he doesn't play one single minute," Mourinho said. "He needs to play, we have a young goalkeeper in Joel [Pereira] that played many minutes [for Belenenses] in the last six months and for the development of both, Joel played six months in the Portuguese Premier League and now it's time for Sam to play six months."

Mourinho has suggested he will allow both Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay to leave the club during the January window, provided the right offer comes in. However, the United boss insists no clubs have yet met their valuations of the two players.

"That is the only loan we are going to do, apart from that I don't want to sell players and the club and board is totally with me. But, if a player is not having lots of minutes and wants to leave, we have no right to stop the player leaving if the conditions are our conditions.

"At this moment, we have not received on single offer than we are going to accept."

United welcome Aitor Karanka's Middlesbrough to Old Trafford on Saturday but will be without captain Wayne Rooney, who is suffering from a thigh injury. Luke Shaw is also still working his way back to full fitness.