Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho admitted that his treatment of German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger was wrong and that he regretted freezing him out of the first team, manutd.com reported.
Under the Portuguese manager, Schweinsteiger was sidelined to the reserves team and was only handed cameo roles in the first team from October.
The German World Cup winner was released to join Major League Socccer club Chicago Fire last week.
Mourinho revealed that he was not too happy with the 32-year-old’s commitment towards the club while he was injured.
“What I knew about Bastian was a season full of injuries, a season almost when he didn’t play, when he wasn’t even having treatment at the club - he was having treatment outside the club,’ Mourinho said ahead of United’s Premier League clash against West Brom. “I didn’t think that was right. The mentality was not right. The kind of player I wouldn’t like to have in the squad,” he added.
The report stated that Schweinsteiger spent a lot of time during his injury away from the club and did not come often to watch the team play during games on weekends.
“But after knowing him as a person and professional - the way he behaved and respected my decisions - yes I regret it,” Mourinho admitted. “There’s no problem for me to admit that. He knows that.”
Mourinho added that the bloated squad by predecessor Louis van Gaal had also made Schweinsteiger’s place in the first team untenable.
“I knew that in that moment we had too many players. If you remember at that time we had many players in doubtful situations - (Morgan) Schneiderlin, (Memphis) Depay, (Tyler) Blackett, (James) Wilson, (Andreas) Pereira,’ he said.
“It was the last thing I told him before I left - ‘I was not right with you once, I have to be right to you now’. When he asked me to leave I had to say yes, because I did it once - I cannot do it twice.
“I feel sorry for the first period with him. He knows that and I’m happy he knows. I’ll miss a good guy, a good professional and a good influence in training.
“I couldn’t stop him leaving, even knowing we had so many matches and knowing we might have needed him for a few periods. We wish him and his wife a very happy life in Chicago,” he added.