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24th May 2017

Zlatan Ibrahimovic renamed the Friends Arena before ditching his crutches to celebrate

No limp would stop him

Darragh Murphy

Zlatan Ibrahimovic wasn’t going to let a pesky injury prevent him from enjoying his day out.

The Manchester United centre-forward was back in Sweden on Wednesday night to watch on from the sidelines as his side claimed Europa League glory.

Ibrahimovic, fresh from surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament injury he picked up last month, arrived in style ahead of the final game of United’s season.

https://twitter.com/UtdHQ/status/867430442135433216

The 35-year-old’s nerves, however few, were eased when Paul Pogba opened the scoring early on before Henrikh Mkhitaryan put the final beyond Ajax.

But before a ball was kicked, Ibrahimovic felt it appropriate to rename the Friends Arena, which hosted the game, and he did so in typical Zlatan fashion.

The Swedish powerhouse took to Instagram to announce that the stadium would now be referred to as “the Zlatan Arena.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUfE7oegoIB/?taken-by=iamzlatanibrahimovic&hl=en

And no limp or crutch or surgery scar was going to stop Ibrahimovic from celebrating the win as he promptly parted ways with the pair of crutches that had been supporting him once the final whistle was blown.

He took to the pitch, beaming with pride, and threw caution to the wind as he embraced his teammates.

Whether he will still be a United player next season remains to be seen but there’s no denying that he enjoyed himself during his final gameday as a Red Devil, if it proves to be just that.