Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho has insisted that he left Henrikh Mkhitaryan out of his squad to face Newcastle United due to increased competition.
The Armenia international was not a part of the Red Devils' 18-man party for the 4-1 win at Old Trafford on Saturday, amid claims that he may have fallen out with his manager.
Mourinho has stressed that Mkhitaryan, who has struggled for form since the opening weeks of the campaign, had to make way as a number of other players are starting to return to full fitness.
"The story is always the same. In some positions, when you don't have injuries, you have lots of options in other positions," he told reporters. "In this moment, we have [Paul] Pogba, Marouane Fellaini, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay.
"So I can imagine, next week, you are going to ask - why is this player not playing? Micki is not playing because we had lots of options for that match. I decided to play Marcus Rashford and [Anthony] Martial together.
"For many weeks, the question was - why do they not play together? Now, the question is why is Micki not playing. The answer is very simple - until the international board change the rules, I can only start with 11!"
Mkhitaryan is a part of United's travelling squad for Wednesday evening's Champions League meeting with Basel in Switzerland.
Daniel Lewis
