ZLATAN IBRAHIMOVIC IS nearing a return to action with Manchester United and is determined to win the Premier League, declaring: “I have come back to finish what I started.”
Ibrahimovic helped United to the Community Shield, Europa League and EFL Cup in his first season in Manchester, however a serious knee ligament injury cut short an impressive campaign before the 36-year-old became a free agent.
After convincing manager Jose Mourinho and United’s hierarchy of his ability to return to full fitness, Ibrahimovic has returned on a one-year deal with one thing on the Swedish striker’s mind.
“I said I have come back to finish what I started,” he told Sky Sports.
“Everything I built up in the first season – obviously we won the three trophies – the ending for me was not the ending I wanted, or nobody wanted, especially after how the season went.
“The target is the Premier League. That is my target to finish,” he said with United currently second and five points adrift of leaders Manchester City heading into Saturday’s visit of Tottenham.
“Everything I started in the first season, we will finish in the second one.”
Former PSG, AC Milan and Barcelona star Ibrahimovic scored 28 goals in all competitions in 2016-17, but a double knee injury sustained against Anderlecht in April cost him his involvement in the Europa League final and also raised doubts over his future in the game.
“In that moment when it happened, it was easier for me to say that I would come back because then I had a challenge,”he added.
“The challenge was that I never had a major injury, and all these people talking that ‘it’s over’ or ‘he’s too old’, all these doubts that I had in my whole career.
“When that happens, it triggers me because it gives me energy and an objective. I’m challenging what I am able to do, how far I can take my body.
“In the last few years, when you’re thinking how many more years you are going to play, that is where you are hesitating. But the injury made it easy for me. I had one target, and that is to come back and play the game.
“I will walk out just as I came in, I will not walk out limping. I will walk out the way I want to walk out. Even if I have to walk on water, I will do that also.”
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