Mourinho: Bailly will have surgery, miss '2 or 3 months'

Eric Bailly is going under the knife.

Speaking to MUTV, Jose Mourinho confirmed that Bailly will have surgery on his injured ankle and is set to be sidelined for "two or three months." The Ivorian centre-back last took the pitch as Manchester United suffered a 1-0 defeat at Chelsea in November. According to the Press Association, the product of RCD Espanol picked up the injury on international duty, sustaining it as Mali and Cote d'Ivoire played out a scoreless draw in 2018 World Cup qualifying.

"Bailly goes to surgery - the decision is made," Mourinho said. "I don't say (he's out) for the rest of the season, but it's for the next two or three months. But now we have (Phil) Jones back and we have (Chris) Smalling, even (Daley) Blind, so it's a position we have good cover in but of course we'll miss the player."

In addition to Jones, Smalling, and Blind, Mourinho will have Marcos Rojo and Victor Lindelof at his disposal to fill the void left by Bailly, whose injury was described by the Special One as "serious" and for which he was trying a "conservative treatment."