German midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger’s departure from Manchester United to MLS club Chicago Fire was a disappointing end to his Premier League stint.
The Bayern Munich midfielder completed his move to America after being exiled at Old Trafford.
Mourinho reduced the player to United’s sidelines before the inevitable exit from the club.
But Mourinho admitted that he regretted the manner in which Schweinsteiger left.
“I don’t want to speak about him as a player, I don’t want to speak as I buy or not to buy. I want to speak about him as a professional, as a human being. The last thing I told him before he left ‘I was not right with you once, I have to be right with you now,” said Mourinho.
“So when he was asking me to let him leave I had to say ‘yes, you can leave’ because I did it once, I cannot do it twice. So I feel sorry for the first period with him, he knows that. I am happy that he knows because I told him.
“I will miss a good guy, a good professional, a good influence in training – a very good influence. I could not stop him to go even knowing that until the end of the season we have so many matches and we would probably need him for a few matches or a few periods. I had to let him go and now publicly wish him and his wife a very happy life in Chicago.”
Asked if he regrets the way he treated Schweinsteiger, Mourinho said: “Yeah, I do. He’s in the category of players that I feel sorry for something that I did to him.”