Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has said that he is still surprised at the action of the club to allow its former striker Javier Hernandez leave.

The diminutive Mexico International was sold to German side Bayer Leverkusen for just £7.3 million in the summer of 2015. The striker has been in impressive from since his arrival at the Bundesliga club.

Hernandez has scored 33 goals in 53 games for the German club, proving to be a good deal for them. Ferdinand, who two Premier League titles alongside the player whilst playing for United, said Hernandez would get up to 20 goals if he were playing for Tottenham or Arsenal.

“I can’t believe he was allowed to leave. Even more surprising, he was sold for £7.3 million, that’s an absolute steal. If he played for Spurs he’d score 20 a season, or Arsenal.

“His movement is so infectious to the team, he’s always on the move,” Ferdinand told BT Sport.

Coach Jose Mourinho’s team has struggled to get goals in recent games with star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic getting just one in 11 matches. While Ferdinand did not suggest that Hernandez could have solve the situation at Old Trafford, he asked that Mourinho restore summer signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Michael Carrick to the first team to help.

He wrote in a post on Evening Standard: “For me, Carrick has to play more. He can feed the attacking players quicker and more precisely than anyone else in that squad,”

“I don’t know what’s happened to Mkhitaryan. Does anyone know where he is? By all accounts he is fit and training well but you don’t see him in a Manchester United shirt. They paid Borussia Dortmund £26m to get him in the summer and for that money, I would actually like to see him play football!”