Jose Mourinho played Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic together in the 2-2 draw against Burnley on Boxing Day to little effect.

The Swede looked out of place in a No 10 role and was hooked at half-time and replaced by Jesse Lingard who salvaged a point for the Red Devils.

And Mourinho has admitted he has no plans on playing the strikers together anytime soon - especially with them both not performing.

“It can happen but I think to happen they need both to be in their best moment and they are not,” he said.

“Lukaku is not because the situation in the team didn’t allow him to have any rest and he’s giving absolutely everything in every minute.

“We just manage to give him a little rest in cup matches and even so he was on the bench for emergency situations.

“Champions League was about the same, we had to fight until the last match for qualification and the boy is tired.

“He is physically a monster but not a machine and he’s feeling it.

“And Zlatan is a man with an incredible injury, an injury that a 20-year-old man or young man would suffer.

“Imagine a 36-year-old man and so many miles in high level football, so it is not easy.

“We did that against Burnley, we will do that in some more matches if we need to do but for both to play together we need them to be at their best level.”

Lukaku has made 29 appearances for United this term in all competitions and scored 15 goals, while Ibrahimovic has turned out just seven times and has one strike to his name.