Manchester blast: Manchester United hold a minute's silence; cancel Europa League final press conference

New Delhi: In the light of the Manchester explosion which witnessed the death of 22 people and 59 getting seriously injured, Jose Mourinho, coach of Manchester United called off the press conference ahead of the Europa Final at Stockholm, today.

Mourinho was to speak to the media at 1800 local time in Stockholm, today, about their final against Ajax at Friends Arena tomorrow. But with the news of the blast coming in, the Portuguese international canceled the conference, to which UEFA agreed.

A statement released by UEFA read as: "Following last night’s attack in Manchester, UEFA has received and accepted an official request from Manchester United not to hold their pre-match press conference, which was scheduled to take place at the Friends Arena in Stockholm this evening."

Following the incident, Manchester United players held a minute of silence ahead of their final training session at Carrington. A picture of which was shared on their official Twitter page saying – "#WeStandTogether."

 

#WeStandTogether pic.twitter.com/Ro0ohU9PI6 — Manchester United (@ManUtd) May 23, 2017

They even tweeted Mourinho's statement which said, "We're all very sad about the tragic events last night; we can't take out of our minds & hearts the victims & their families."

As for UEFA, another statement for theirs mentioning about the final match at Stockholm said – "There is currently no specific intelligence which might suggest that any of the UEFA Europa League final activities in Stockholm may be the target of attacks. UEFA has been closely working with local authorities and the Swedish FA for many months and the terrorist risk had been taken into account since the very beginning of the project. Furthermore, a number of additional security measures were implemented following the attacks in Stockholm last April."