Manchester United team news: Alexis Sanchez out for six weeks with hamstring injury, fears Jose Mourinho

Alexis Sanchez is facing six weeks out with the hamstring injury suffered in training on Thursday – and will definitely miss next week’s reunion with his former club Arsenal.

The Manchester United forward is out of Saturday’s Premier League trip to Southampton with the injury, and is not expected to be available before the visit to Tottenham on January 13.

Manager Jose Mourinho said there was a “painful scream” from the Chile international when he sustained the injury, but added that he is still waiting for the results of a scan.

He said: “There have been no scans yet. But the player is experienced, the player knows what the injury is and also from the top of my experience, just the painful scream and the way the injury happened, I know it's going to be for a long time.”

Mourinho indicated that he felt Sanchez’s injury was worse than the one suffered by defender Victor Lindelof towards the end of last Saturday’s 0-0 draw at home to Crystal Palace.

Lindelof is expected to be available in time for United’s Christmas fixtures, having been forced out of Tuesday’s Champions League victory over Swiss side Young Boys.

Sanchez, who has been struggling for form this season, was omitted from the squad for Tuesday’s match, even though he had been available for selection.

Mourinho said: “It is not the little muscular injury that in one week or 10 days the player is ready.

“For me and also for Alexis, the feelings before the scans is that the grade [of the hamstring injury] is different than for Lindelof.

“The Lindelof one was not an easy one, so Alexis has what I used to call an aggressive muscular injury.”

Mourinho, meanwhile, has made clear his belief that David de Gea will sign a new contract.

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The Spain goalkeeper’s long-term future at Old Trafford has been shrouded in uncertainty, although the club this week did activate an option to extend his current contract by a year, meaning that he is now signed up until June 2020.

Had that extension not been triggered, De Gea would have been free to talk to clubs outside England from January 1 and possibly sign a pre-contract agreement.

Mourinho said after Tuesday’s win over Young Boys that he wanted De Gea to stay, and he remains confident that an agreement will be reached.

He said on Friday: “He wants to stay, and I want him to stay of course. He’s the level of player Manchester United needs.

“Manchester United needs the best players in the world. The manager wants him to stay, the board wants him to stay, David wants to stay, and his agent wants the player to do what he thinks is right.

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“He is not the kind of agent who is manipulative like others. His agent lets him think and decide by himself so the point is to agree the contract and that's just my feeling, they are going to finish well.”

United visit Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday seeking to improve on their position of seventh.

Mourinho said: “We want to improve our position in the table, we want to close the gap to the top four.

“We want to be smelling these positions. If we are not there, we want to be just smelling them for the second part of the season.

“But everybody for different reasons need points so it's not like we go to Southampton and they don't need points. It is not just one team who have a high level of motivation.”