Naijagossiper

Swedish football great Zlatan Ibrahimovic says he will surprise many by performing better for Manchester United than he did before suffering a serious knee injury earlier this year .
The 35 -year - old veteran striker — who defied the critics in scoring 28 goals for United last season , including crucial goals in their Community Shield and League Cup victories — told ‘Inside United ’ he had not let the ligament injury get him down.
Ibrahimovic enjoys a good relationship with United manager Jose Mourinho , who maintained contact with him during his rehabilitation , and the Portuguese decided it was worth offering him a new one year contract last month.
Mourinho believes Ibrahimovic will offer strong competition to Romelu Lukaku — the Swede could be back in action as early as November — for the striking role , even though the Belgian has begun impressively since his £ 75 million ( $ 97 .6 million , 82 .5 million euros ) move from Everton .
“I feel good ,” said Ibrahimovic.
“I have trained every day since I had my knee operated on , there is no vacation .
“It’ s a new challenge but I am strong mentally and when I focus on an objective nothing can stop me.
“I will go through everything , it doesn ’t matter what ’s in my way , I will break everything to reach my goal .
“When I come back to play football on the field I will be better than before. I am not coming back because I am the one I am , I am coming back to be a better version of the old one. Imagine how that will be !”
Ibrahimovic , who missed United ’s Europa League final victory over Ajax due to his injury , said his natural impulsiveness would have had him back playing by now, but he had had to restrain himself .
“If we talk specifically about the injury then I have never felt any pain , the only thing I have felt is a strange feeling in my movement that obviously showed something was wrong in the knee ,” he said .
“Now we ’re building it up and it’s getting stronger .
“I feel good and I feel my movements are there . If it was up to me I would like to play football today but it doesn ’t work like that .
“I need to have patience and that’s the way we work . We are in no rush , when we are ready we will be ready.
“When I am playing again I don’t want any excuses that I was injured , or ‘he just came back, this is his first game ’.
“No — I want to feel the same pressure I had before.”
AFP ""