Bastian Schweinsteiger named in Manchester United's official squad list

The 32-year-old has not featured under new manager Jose Mourinho, with the Portuguese saying it would be “very difficult” for him to break into the midfield.

But Schweinsteiger, who played in his last game for Germany against Finland on Wednesday, has been handed what looks to be a small reprieve, giving him hope of forcing his way into the manager's plans.

Under Premier League rules, each club has to submit a 25-man squad of which eight must be "home grown". United have 15 senior players who do not come under that description and so the German has been included without the need to drop any others.

Schweinsteiger has previously insisted that United would be his last club in Europe which has prompted rumours of a big-money move to China or the MLS in January.

Full squad: Bailly, Blind, Carrick, Darmian, De Gea, Depay, El-Fitouri, Fellaini, Herrera, Ibrahimovic, Johnstone, Jones, Lingard, Mata, Mkhitaryan, Pogba, Rojo, Romero, Rooney, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Smalling, Valencia, Young

First-team U21s: Fosu-Mensah, Martial, Rashford, Shaw

Jose Mourinho has previously insisted that he likes to work with a squad of 20 players. However, this season, with United in the Europa League he has said he will need more. So this doesn't really improve Schweinsteiger's situation much, given his manager's preference to work with relatively small squads, and seems to simply be a case of his name being included on the list as there was a space that needed filling, not because he has any improved chance of playing.