23/08/2017 09:40, Report by Matt Bullin

Ashley Young is ready to answer Jose Mourinho's call, having returned to action from a lengthy injury lay-off with a 59-minute cameo for Manchester United's Under-23s on Monday night.

The experienced and versatile Red was joined in the Reserves side by Luke Shaw, as the pair continued to build their fitness in the 1-1 draw with Swansea City at Leigh Sports Village.

The United duo played for just under an hour and Shaw told us afterwards that Ricky Sbragia's prospects will benefit by learning from a player as accomplished as Young. 

In an exclusive post-match interview with MUTV, Young admitted he is now desperate to make his first-team comeback in the coming weeks and hopes to make a positive impact when it happens.

“It’s great to be back,” Young said. “As a player, you want to be back on the pitch and it was good to get minutes under my belt. I’m feeling good, I’m feeling fit. I could’ve played longer, but I was brought off. I’ve worked hard since I had the operation done 13 weeks ago so I’m happy to be back out there.

“I’ve been training with the team for 10 days or so now,” Young continued. “So, whenever the manager calls on me, I’m ready to go. For us, it was a bit like a pre-season game, we’re obviously trying to get the win, but we wanted to get the fitness levels up too, and we’ll just take it from here.”

Next for Mourinho’s men is a Premier League clash against Leicester City at Old Trafford on Saturday, a day after Sbragia’s Reserves travel down south to face Tottenham Hotspur on Friday night, with the action live on MUTV.