Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho has claimed that he will never need to sell club captain Wayne Rooney during his time at the club.

The former Chelsea boss stuck with Rooney at the start of the campaign, with the England international playing behind summer signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

However, the England captain has been relegated to the bench for the club’s last three Premier League games.

With his future at the club seemingly in doubt, reports have suggested he could leave the club in the near future but Mourinho believes the club legend deserves the right to bring his own career at Old Trafford to an end.

He told Sky Sports News HQ: “I will never make that decision. A player of his stature, a player of his history in the club will never go to point where club or manager want to make that decision for him.

“I put him [Rooney] on the bench for three matches in a row. That is hard for him, hard for me, so that is being ruthless, to put in my mind the interests of the team in front of the player, prestige, status.

In this case even legend. To put on bench a player with the numbers he has for club and country is hard.

“But as we were saying before, this is an industry where the people who leads, sometimes in a correct decision, sometimes not correct decisions, but in our mind the decisions we think is the best for the team.”

Rooney will be hoping to play a huge role this season and help his side win the Premier League title, with the Red Devils currently on offer at odds of 15.00 with Dafabet.