Gary Neville blasts Jose Mourinho and John Murtough for 'illegal' incident at Man Utd
Bastian Schweinsteiger has revealed that Jose Mourinho banned him from the Manchester United dressing room and forced him to train with the club's U16s for using personal doctors to address an injury. Gary Neville was left "stunned and embarrassed" by the revelation, blasting the "illegal" treatment from Mourinho and John Murtough.
Related articles Ten Hag has shot himself in the foot with two decisions as Man Utd sack looms Erik ten Hag embarrassed by Andreas Pereira as Man Utd fanbase also slammedLouis van Gaal reunited with Schweinsteiger in the summer of 2015, bringing him to United from Bayern Munich for around £6.5million.
The veteran midfielder struggled to make an impact at Old Trafford, especially beyond Van Gaal's sacking a year later.
Mourinho sanctioned his exit to Chicago Fire in March 2017, less than two years into his three-year contract. He later admitted he regretted how he treated the German football legend.
window.top.addEventListener('primisPlayerInit',e=>{try{if(e.detail&&e.detail.playerApiId==="v114291"){if(window.document.getElementsByClassName('jwplayer')[0]){e.detail.float('disable')}}}catch(e){}});document.addEventListener("tcfLoaded",function(){let el=document.createElement('script');el.setAttribute('src','https://live.primis.tech/live/liveView.php?s=114291&playerApiId=v114291');document.getElementById('ovp-primis').appendChild(el)})In an interview with Neville released by The Overlap on Thursday, Schweinsteiger detailed an incident of mistreatment in 2016 while Mourinho and his squad were on a pre-season tour in the United States.
"On my birthday, when I walked into Carrington [training ground], John Murtough was there and said that I wasn't allowed to walk into the dressing room. The coach had said so. No warning, nothing," Schweinsteiger explained.
"I don't know [why he told me]. Someone could have told me there [on my first day of training] or explained it to me in a normal way, but okay, I went to the youth dressing room and trained with the U16s.
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"Yes, completely [kicked me out of the first team dressing room], so I had to ask him [Murtough] to bring me my cleats and training gear. I asked him who I was training with, and he said there was the U16 team, so I went and trained with the U16s."
Schweinsteiger added that after requesting a meeting with Mourinho, the Portuguese boss explained that he believed the midfielder wasn't happy at United because he did his rehab with German doctors.
The World Cup winner insisted that he was following the same agreement he had with Van Gaal by checking in at Carrington on weekends and staying in contact with club doctors.
But Mourinho was unmoved, and Schweinsteiger was forced to train alone with a fitness coach for over three months, which gave him the impression that United were keen to offload him.
Schweinsteiger rarely saw his senior teammates because he trained before and after. He claims they told him they didn't understand the decision through brief interactions and private messages.
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Neville was left disgraced by the widely-respected icon's comments, aiming fire at Mourinho and Murtough for their actions.
"That's illegal [treatment of Bastian Schweinsteiger]. I was the PFA Union Representative, and you're not allowed to do that, you can't dismiss someone like that, it's constructive dismissal in some ways," Neville replied.
"It's probably a few years too late, you should have come and seen me at the time. I'm stunned and embarrassed at what I'm hearing because I always think, players leave clubs and people fall out, but there is a way to do things and a way to behave and act."
Schweinsteiger later reaffirmed his love for United and claimed that Mourinho invited him back to training when results took a turn for the worst.
"I was not happy with the way I was treated. I was very sad because I really loved Manchester United, it was the second club in my heart," the 39-year-old said.
READ MORE Man Utd ‘strike Jadon Sancho agreement’ as Sir Jim Ratcliffe eyes £45m boost"I gave everything when I played, so I was sad how I got treated, but I'm not the person to run to the media and talk about it; I just wanted to focus on football."
He added: "I don't think they had the best games [results], the season was tough, so maybe they wanted an impact on the training pitch.
"Later, I got my minutes, but when you see other players playing in your position, you think, 'I'm better than this guy.'
"We had Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera, Michael Carrick, Morgan Schneiderlin, and Marouane Fellaini – I thought that I wasn't the last one in that group for that position."
Schweinsteiger concluded on the topic by confirming Mourinho privately apologised for his treatment before giving the green light to his MLS switch. However, the revelations of his treatment leave a sour taste in the mouth.
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