Mourinho confirms January deal for Lindelof is off

Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Manchester United will not sign a central defender during the January transfer window.

The Red Devils have been heavily linked with a move for Benfica centre-back Victor Lindelof but the form of Mourinho's current group of defenders has persuaded him to wait.

United will be without Eric Bailly for the duration of the Ivory Coast's participation in the Africa Cup of Nations, but Mourinho plans to rotate between Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo.

Asked if he would be signing a new defender this month, Mourinho replied: "No, I wait for Bailly. I hope the three can control the situation in those eight matches.

"I will try to rest one in every game. On Saturday I will rest one, against Hull another - and we’ll try to make a rotation between these three.

"We still have Daley Blind as the fourth defender in case we need him to play there and we also have Michael Carrick, so let’s try."

Mourinho also confirmed that Morgan Schneiderlin and Memphis Depay will not be considered for selection until their respective futures are resolved.

The Portuguese revealed the midfield duo looked certain to leave the club in December but now have no imminent moves on the table.

"I will allow them to leave if the right offer comes," Mourinho explained. "Until this moment? No.

"Is this a good situation? No. Why not? Because I don’t think about them as options in this moment.

"In normal conditions they would probably be selected for the match tomorrow and they aren’t because we're waiting for something that a couple of weeks ago looked like 100 per cent and at the moment looks like zero per cent, because we don’t have any offer that is close to the quality for the players we have."