Former Germany international Bastian Schweinsteiger has opened up about his exit from Manchester United.
The 39-year-old joined United in 2015 after lifting Champions League and Bundesliga trophies with Bayern Munich.
But he failed to make a similar impact at Old Trafford, making just 35 senior appearances and scoring two goals.
The highly-rated midfielder eventually left the Premier League giants in 2017 after a disappointing two-year spell in Manchester.
Schweinsteiger has now revealed the truth about his exit from the English club, making stunning claims about how then-manager Jose Mourinho treated him.
Speaking on Gary Neville’s The Overlap, the former Germany international revealed that he was banned from the club’s dressing room without prior warning.
He said: “You wanna know? It was [Euro] 2016, with the Germany national team, we went far, to the semi-finals, so I stepped in a little bit later,” said Schweinsteiger.
“The team had been on the US tour, I think, so when I came first day, I actually trained with Zlatan, he was also there, I was like ‘oh great, a player who has the vision and amazing to play with’.
Then, the next day – my birthday – when I came to Carrington, John Murtough was there and he said ‘you’re not allowed to walk into the dressing room’. I said ‘why’, and he said ‘the coach said so’. Nothing, no warning.
“He just stood there and told me that. It’s also not easy for him to tell me, I must say. First day, I was training, so somebody could have told me there, no problem, or explain it to me in a normal way, but okay, I went to the youth dressing room – I changed there and trained with the Under-16’s.
Schweinsteiger was underwhelming for United
United signed Schweinsteiger in 2015 when Louis van Gaal was the manager.
The German played regularly under Van Gaal during the first half of the 2015-16 season before picking up a serious knee injury.
His fortunes suffered a huge blow after Jose Mourinho was appointed, who sent him to train with the youth team.
He was subsequently allowed to join Major League Soccer outfit Chicago Fire in March 2017.
Schweinsteiger never went public about the manner of his United exit, and Mourinho clearly treated him very poorly.
However, his performances probably infuriated Mourinho, who tends to have little time for underperforming players.
