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Manchester United arrive home from pre-season tour of China

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Less than 24 hours after Manchester United's tour of China came to a calamitous end the squad arrived home in the UK

Manchester United have arrived home following their pre-season tour of China.

The tour ended in disappointing fashion when Manchester United's friendly against Manchester City in Beijing was cancelled because of the state of the pitch.

United's tour misfortune
United's tour misfortune

What went wrong on tour of China

Around 50,000 fans were left disappointed by the cancellation of the Manchester derby on Monday, but it will have come as a relief to Jose Mourinho, who feared playing on the hazardous pitch could have led to injuries.

Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho (centre) looks out from the team bus
Image: Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho (centre) looks out from the team bus

United's players were originally scheduled to have Tuesday and Wednesday off before returning to training on Thursday to prepare for Saturday's friendly with Galatasaray in Gothenburg.

But the cancellation of Monday's game caused Mourinho to change his plans and they trained just two hours after their 11-hour flight from Beijing had landed back at Manchester Airport at 4.30am. 

They headed to Carrington after landing and Mourinho then put them through a two-hour session from 6.30am 0 8.30am.

Mourinho later praised his players on ManUtd.com: "They are a great group of boys and the intensity of the session shows they are very professional in their outlook."

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New signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic is scheduled to join up with his new team-mates this week after being granted an extended holiday following Euro 2016.

The club have not yet announced whether he will feature in the match in his native Sweden this weekend.

In China, Mourinho revealed Ibrahimovic was due to start work with coaches in Manchester last Sunday and he had been set a personalised programme before uniting with the squad on Thursday.

Mourinho said: "Zlatan is going to start a specific programme we have prepared before he joins our group on Thursday, so he has five days just for him."

<<enter caption here>> at Aon Training Complex on July 1, 2016 in Manchester, England.
Image: New Manchester United signing Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Following the trip to Sweden, United will complete their pre-season schedule with a clash against Everton at Old Trafford on August 3 in Wayne Rooney's testimonial.

The Red Devils then head to Wembley on August 7 to take on Leicester City in the FA Community Shield, before beginning their Premier League campaign with a trip to Bournemouth a week later. 

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