Jose Mourinho uncertain over length of Paul Pogba absence but confident Manchester United have cover

Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba will miss the Premier League visit of Everton this weekend but manager Jose Mourinho is uncertain for how long he will be without his record signing. The France international limped out of the Champions League win over FC Basel on Tuesday [12 September] with a hamstring problem and is expected to be out for between four and six weeks, though no confirmation of the length of his absence has been forthcoming.

Mourinho believes the ex-Juventus midfielder will miss "a few matches", starting this weekend, but a date regarding his comeback is unknown. The Old Trafford boss is understood to be angry with Pogba after having ignored advice from the club's medical department over his long-term hamstring issues. English football's most expensive player has instead been working with a personal trainer who the Europa League winners believe is accentuating the problem.

But the Portuguese coach is prepared to dip into his vast squad to cover for the loss of Pogba. Nemanja Matic is again likely to start in midfield having played every minute of the season since his summer move from Chelsea to United, leaving Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini and the as yet unused Michael Carrick to fight it out for the remaining midfield berths.

"We have players and we have players waiting for an opportunity because we start the season really well with one match per week, no need for resting, changes, we were going with the same players, he said, according to the Manchester Evening News. "But there are good players more than ready to play so honestly we miss Pogba, we need Pogba but we have good players.

"Herrera, Fellaini, Carrick are waiting for a real chance to start the matches and they are ready so this is also our way of think. We lost important players last season during crucial moments of the season and we were not crying or getting excuses about that. Squads are to try to cope with these kind of situations and we know that in a few situations, I don't know how many, but we are going to play without Pogba for a few matches but we have other players."

While Zlatan Ibrahimovic continues to recover from a knee problem suffered last season, United's only other fitness concern surrounds defender who has not played since April due to a cruciate knee ligament injury. Luke Shaw is available however having played three times for the club's Under-23 side after missing the end of last term with ankle ligament damage.

"Luke Shaw is not injured anymore so is a question of form, is a question of option but is not injured, he's recovered," added the United boss. "Marcos Rojo is still in the timings of such an important injury, everything went really well, but is not training in a normal session, just parts of it, so he probably has a couple of months."