Romelu Lukaku has been given until Thursday to engineer a move away from Manchester United and has been left out of a 26-man squad ahead of Wednesday’s friendly against Kristiansund.
The Belgium international has fallen behind Marcus Rashford and, seemingly, teenage sensation Mason Greenwood in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s pecking order.
Lukaku has publicly admitted his desire to test himself in Italy with Inter and Juventus both known to be interested in signing the 26-year-old, who joined United in a £75million deal from Everton two years ago.
The former Chelsea striker was present with the rest of the first team squad during the recent tour of Australia and Asia, but did not make a single appearance in any of the four matches and was said to be nursing a ‘minor injury’.
United travel to Norway later today for the penultimate match of their pre-season campaign with the first match of the Premier League season looming on the horizon against Chelsea on August 11.
And, according to HLN, if Lukaku is to leave, Solskjaer wants the situation finalised by Thursday in order to give United enough time to sign a replacement.
Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has been linked with a shock move to Old Trafford, while Lyon’s Moussa Dembele is said to be Solskjaer’s first choice option.
The France Under-21 international scored twice in Lyon’s 2-1 win over Arsenal on Sunday but afterwards insisted he was fully committed to the Ligue 1 side.
He said: ‘The most important thing is that we won. I want to be an undisputed starter this season,’ he said.
‘I’m going to have perform well consistently. I want to have a great season with Lyon.’
Inter, meanwhile, have already seen two formal bids for Lukaku rejected this summer with United hoping to at least recoup the money they paid Everton in the summer of 2017.
Antonio Conte is a keen admirer of Lukaku’s and tried to sign him while he was in charge of Chelsea but was forced to settle for Alvaro Morata who endured a miserable spell in west London.
