Eric Bailly was the first player to sign for Manchester United after Jose Mourinho took over as manager
Manchester United defender Eric Bailly may need surgery on a "serious" ankle injury, says manager Jose Mourinho.
The 23-year-old centre-back, who Mourinho said was injured while on international duty with the Ivory Coast, has not played for United since the defeat at Chelsea on 5 November.
He is not expected to miss the rest of the season.
"I don't want to be so pessimistic. I want to leave it with a doctor," said Mourinho.
"His is an injury that comes from the last time he went with the international team and then we are trying a conservative treatment.
"If the conservative treatment is not resulting, probably he will have a surgery procedure but let's wait a little bit more."
Chris Smalling and Phil Jones started Wednesday's 1-0 win over Bournemouth, and Mourinho said he was happy with his options at centre-back.
"During the whole season, we've had problems with central defenders but because the number is four or five, we manage always to have [players available] and Chris Smalling is playing amazingly well for seven or eight matches in a row maybe, so we are fine."
Bailly was the first player to sign for United after Mourinho took over as manager, joining from Villarreal in the summer of 2016 for £30m.
Source: bbc.com