Centre-back Jones is out of Manchester United’s clash with Newcastle after aggravating a thigh injury in last Friday’s friendly international at Wembley.

Jones was clearly in trouble early in the game and eventually limped off after 25 minutes, leaving Mourinho angered by England’s lack of care and attention for a player who has been his best defender this season in what was only a friendly.

He said: “I have been a manager since 2000 and in 17 years as a manager I didn’t have one single player that had injections of anaesthetic to play a friendly. Never.

“I am not an angel and I had players injected to play official matches, crucial matches – but a friendly? To get six local anaesthetic injections to play a friendly – I’ve never heard of that.

“But Phil had it and had it before the match and after 15 minutes he was out and tomorrow he is out.”

Asked if he had raised his concerns with Southgate or anyone at the FA, he said: “No, no, no. I am just telling a fact. He was injected in the afternoon of the match and he didn’t feel good during the warm-up. Between the warm-up and the start of the match he had five more local injections to play the friendly. I have nothing more to say.”

Mourinho is angry with himself for not pulling Jones out of the England squad in the first place. He was injured against Huddersfield three weeks ago, missed the Champions League game with Benfica, but played against Tottenham and Chelsea.

And Mourinho’s frustration has been compounded by the fact several of United’s title rivals withdrew players from the England squad – leaders Manchester City, for instance, pulling out Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph.

But while Jones will sit it out today, Mourinho has been boosted by the return of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo for the visit of Newcastle.

Pogba has been out for 12 games with a torn hamstring while Ibrahimovic and Rojo have been absent since both ruptured knee ligaments in the Europa League quarter-final second leg against Anderlecht in April.

Midfielder Pogba’s return is particularly significant because United’s form has suffered since he was injured early in the Champions League home clash with Basel on September 12. Striker Romelu Lukaku has also felt the absence of Pogba’s creativity and has failed to score in his last seven club appearances.

“You can clearly see that there was Manchester United this season before Paul’s injury and then after Paul injury,” said Mourinho. “There are qualities in our football that influence our approach in matches, with Pogba and without Pogba.”

Mourinho praised Ibrahimovic’s character for fighting back ahead of schedule from a career-threatening injury at the age of 37.

“He’s shown incredible personality to fight such an important injury. We were saying all along that he will back in 2017 but being back on December 31 is one thing but to be back in mid-November is another.

“So fantastic work from him – the same as Marcos, who also had an important injury and a big surgery. He played with the under-23s on Wednesday and he is fine, confident, and ready.”

Of the three, Pogba is the most likely to start while Ibrhaimovic and Rojo are set to be on the bench as United bid to equal the run of 38 home matches unbeaten in all competitions set under Sir Alex Ferguson between December 1998 and April 2000 – a club record in the Premier League era.

Newcastle are without Jamaal Lascelles, Christian Atsu and Mikel Merino – hardly ideal for manager Rafa Benitez as he resumes his rivalry with Jose Mourinho.

They lock horns in a League game for the first time since August 2007 when they were the respective managers of Liverpool and Chelsea.

Back then they were the best of enemies and the war of words between them dragged on with both coaching Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

But the Newcastle boss insists time has healed much of the animosity and he’s reluctant to reopen old wounds.

“We are older and a lot calmer and relaxed because we have more experience,” he said. “I do not want to waste too much time talking about that. It is not important.

“The main thing is the players and Newcastle is a team that has to work very hard if it wants to be closer to Manchester United.”