Mourinho: I can’t guarantee that Leandro Barreiro will play.

In the preview to the Sp. Braga-Benfica match, for the 16th round of the national championship, José Mourinho did not want to commit to a statement regarding Leandro Barreiro’s recovery and explained why he scheduled a press conference for 9:30 am.

Leandro Barreiro

I wouldn’t say 100 percent, but he trained with the team and the signs were positive. Last week in Barreiro I said he was fine before training, but then he wasn’t anymore. Today it’s the same. I can’t guarantee he’ll play, because I’m afraid something might happen.

Press conference at 9:30 AM

“I’ll take this opportunity to explain why the press conference was so early. I had prepared a somewhat provocative response. I was hoping you wouldn’t show up. But the reality is that we have a meeting after training. Training ends, meeting, lunch, and then we leave for Luz, which is where we leave the cars. To come here for two or three minutes, we could either do it on BTV again or do it before training so you’d have something. We lost two days with the 24th and 25th. Even if the training is for recovery, we have analyses of the opponent. We lost for the emotional well-being of the players, staff, and myself. But we have to gain time today. Normally we arrive [in Braga] at dinner, today we arrive an hour and a half to have some time.