Bastian Schweinsteiger does not blame Mourinho for Man United exit

Bastian Schweinsteiger has suggested his unhappy spell at Manchester United may not have all been down to boss Jose Mourinho.

The 32-year-old was largely frozen out under Mourinho at Old Trafford and left to join MLS side Chicago Fire in March.

But while he described the situation at United as “unfortunate”, Schweinsteiger told ESPN he did not believe Mourinho was solely responsible.

Schweinsteiger said: “I had a talk with him and he had an opinion, maybe it was not made by himself.

“(The decision not to play me) was maybe made by someone else without him so I think after I trained and I played and you could see me and how I behave as a professional and he has a different opinion, so it was a little bit unfortunate.

“I think (it would be different) if we would have met in a different situation.”

The German international was signed by Mourinho’s predecessor Louis van Gaal in the summer of 2015, but under Mourinho he was forced to train on his own for three months.

Schweinsteiger added: “In my eyes it was not the right decision, but in life sometimes you have this kind of situation where something is not correct and right in your way, but you have to accept it, and I accepted it.

“I said ‘okay I accept it, but still want to stay here and want to train. I want to show I am a player you can trust.’ And that’s what I was doing at Manchester. I was then training with the first team and playing with the first team. I mean it was not easy when I was training by my own for three months.”