SAINT-ETIENNE, France — Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says he cannot guarantee that Wayne Rooney will finish the season at the club.
Rooney, United's captain and record goal-scorer, is no longer a first-team regular and has been linked with a lucrative move to the Chinese Super League, where the transfer window shuts next week.
Mourinho said three weeks ago that there was no chance Rooney would be leaving before the end of the season, but did not make the same guarantees on Wednesday at a pre-match news conference ahead of United's Europa League game against Saint-Etienne.
Mourinho says "Of course I can't guarantee (it) ... What I can guarantee is that if Wayne one day leaves the club, it's not because I want him to leave the club."
Mourinho says he "would never push — or try to push — a legend of this club to another destiny."
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