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		</div><p>Jose Mourinho&#8217;s fury at the state of the Rostov pitch was exacerbated by a UEFA official telling the Manchester United manager not to worry about injuries as his players are protected by insurance.</p>
<p>United made the long trip to Russia for the first leg of a Europa League last-16 clash that the Portuguese initially described as a &#8220;bad draw in every aspect&#8221;.</p>
<p>Mourinho&#8217;s concerns have only grown after seeing the state of the Olimp-2 stadium pitch &#8211; a surface the manager compared to the Bird&#8217;s Nest quagmire that saw United&#8217;s money-spinning pre-season friendly against Manchester City in Beijing called off.</p>
<p>Rostov manager Ivan Daniliants had warned that their pitch would be a &#8220;problem&#8221;, but the United boss was still taken aback by the quality.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;It&#8217;s still hard for me to believe that we are going to play (there),&#8221;</i> Mourinho said.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I know that we have to, but it is hard for me to believe we are going to play (on Thursday) on that field &#8211; if you can call it a field.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;And I don&#8217;t know what team to play, really. I don&#8217;t know if Henrikh Mkhitaryan is going to play, I don&#8217;t know.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have now a lot to think (about) because I was expecting something more playable.</p>
<p>&#8220;In a very similar pitch in the summer in China, we and Manchester City decided not to play. But it looks like we have to play.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>It is not the first time Mourinho has been infuriated by UEFA&#8217;s decision to make a Europa League match go ahead despite issues with the surface.</p>
<p>In December, the Portuguese was angry with European football&#8217;s governing body for making United play the Europa League group-stage decider at Zorya Luhansk on a frozen pitch.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t have any contact with anyone until now (about the pitch),&#8221;</i> Mourinho said this time in Russia.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I just had a quick contact with one gentleman from UEFA when I was looking at the pitch.</p>
<p>&#8220;And when I told him about my concerns, the gentleman just told me, &#8216;The players are insured, if something happens no problem&#8217;.&#8221;</i></p>
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