The 22-year-old, who signed for the Red Devils earlier this summer in a transfer from Villarreal helped his national team, Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) qualify for the African Cup of Nations last week, which means he will be out of action for upto five weeks at the beginning of the next year.
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£30million man Bailly has impressed since becoming the first major signing of the Jose Mourinho era at Old Trafford.
Bailly started his country’s qualifier against Sierra Leone on Saturday and the 1-1 dray was enough to secure qualification for the finals. Incidentally, Ivory Coast is also the reigning champions of the tournament and they will go all out again to defend the title in Gabon. The tournament will take place from January 14 to February 5 next year. As a outcome, he is going to miss three matches for sure – and one of the them is a high voltage clash against arch rivals Liverpool.
“Playing for Villarreal is different to playing for Manchester United”.
The centre-back is set to miss some important United games early next year.
Eric Bailly of Manchester United controls the ball in mid air during The FA Community Shield match between Leicester City and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium on August 7, 2016 in London, England.
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“When you buy somebody like him you have always a question mark which is the way”, Mourinho said of Bailly after United’s win against Bournemouth.
