Reports: Alexis Sanchez absent from Manchester United squad for Sunday's match against Brighton
What's the story?
Manchester United talisman, Alexis Sanchez was absent from the squad as they travelled down to the south coast for the Sunday clash against Brighton. According to reports from the Manchester Evening News and other English media outlets, the Chilean was not spotted boarding the private jet which chartered the United team to the Amex Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
In case you didn't know...
Alexis Sanchez joined United in January of this year and has struggled to replicate his incredible form at Arsenal during his time at Old Trafford. However, the 29-year-old is an important member of the Manchester United first team and started in the 2-1 win over Leicester at Old Trafford last Friday.
Sanchez has trained with his teammates at United's training ground, Carrington, all week and has shown no signs of injury. He impressed greatly during the Red Devils' pre-season tour of America and looked to be on the way to recapturing the form which encouraged Mourinho to sign him eight months ago.
The heart of the matter
There has been no official word from the Old Trafford camp regarding Sanchez's absence and we do not know yet if he picked up a late injury or if he has been dropped from the matchday squad.
It seems highly unlikely that Mourinho would leave out such an important player from the squad even when considering his subdued display against Leicester last week. However, it looks like a combination of two from Jessie Lingard, Marcus Rashford, and Anthony Martial will now start alongside Juan Mata behind Romalu Lukaku.
Rumour Rating: 9/10
With no official announcement as of yet, the absence of Sanchez is not confirmed. However, as he didn't get on the plane with his teammates it seems highly unlikely he will travel alone to Brighton and play a role in this game.
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What's next?
We will likely find out about why Sanchez did not travel with the matchday squad during Mourinho's pre-match interview. For the meantime, United fans will rightly be concerned that one of their star players is missing from an important game where the Red Devils are hoping to make it two wins from two and continue their perfect start to the new campaign.