Manchester United trigger contract extension for Marouane Fellaini

Manchester United have triggered a clause in Marouane Fellaini's contract that will keep him at the club until 2018. The midfielder scored the second goal in United's 2-0 win over Hull City in the semi-final of the EFL Cup.

The BBC reports that Fellaini's contract with the Red Devils expired after the end of the season but Jose Mourinho has been impressed by his performances and has decided to keep him for another year. The revelation comes after the Belgian was booed by United fans for giving away a penalty in the dying minutes of their game against Everton, which cost them two points.

Fellaini ran to Mourinho after scoring against Hull and the manager reciprocated his enthusiasm as the Red Devils took a vital lead into the second leg. United are set to let go Memphis Depay and Morgan Schneiderlin in January, with the latter close to completing a move to Everton in the next few days.

Meanwhile, Mourinho has made it clear that he will not be investing heavily in the market in January. The Red Devils are without a few key defenders with Marcos Rojo out with a muscle problem, while Eric Bailly is unavailable following his participation in the African Cup of Nations.

The Red Devils were heavily linked with a move for Benfica defender Victor Lindelof but Mourinho insists that the January window will see a lot of departures with signings likely to be kept aside for the summer. United made four major acquisitions last window and has reaped tangible dividends from their form in the last few weeks.

"I think that in this winter market we will only sell and not buy, it is my feeling," Mourinho told Portugal's Sport TV. "Let's build to attack the market next summer as we did this [season]. We hired four players [Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Bailly] and we knew they could help."