Romelu Lukaku is reportedly on course to make his return to action from a troublesome foot problem in Manchester United’s league clash against Wolverhampton Wanderers next week. The 25-year-old sustained the injury in a collision with Marquinhos during the Red Devils’ memorable 3-1 victory away to Paris Saint-Germain earlier this month.
Lukaku started against Arsenal four days later and aggravated the injury, ruling him out of United’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at Molineux on March 16, as well as Belgium’s two games over the international break.
However, the former Everton and Chelsea striker returned to England on Thursday following treatment at a private clinic in his homeland.
Saturday’s home match against Watford is likely to come too soon, but he could feature against Wolves three days later to get himself match fit to face Barcelona in the Champions League the following week.
Hours before Lukaku news warmed the hearts of Manchester United fans, Solskjaer was today confirmed as United’s permanent manager after singing a three-year contract.
The deal means he leaves his job at Molde, where he was working before being approached by United in December.
United and Molde came to an agreement where Solskjaer would work at Old Trafford until the end of the season, with the option of the deal being made permanent.
The Red Devils announced Solskjaer’s three-year commitment this morning and it means Molde are now set for a mega pay day. United had already paid the Norwegian outfit £1.8m to effectively loan Solskjaer for the rest of the season.
And they will now fork out an additional £7.2m to secure his services full time. United have already been forced to pay out an eye-watering £20m when they sacked Jose Mourinho in December.
Mourinho was booted out of the club after a disastrous start to the season, along with staff members Silvino Louro, Ricardo Formosinho, Stefano Rapetti, Carlos Lalin and analyst Giovanni Cera.
To put Solskjaer’s fee into context, the most valuable player currently in Norway’s Eliteserien is Rosenborg’s Birger Meling at £1.35m (transfermarkt). In fact, the entire league is said to be worth just over £107m.
United spent big under Mourinho in an effort to rival Manchester City but the Red Devils flopped despite their £300m+ outlay.
Mourinho perpetually complained about the lack of financial backing at Old Trafford and was critical last summer when he was unable to sign a key centre-back.
United broke their transfer record under Mourinho with the £89m arrival of Paul Pogba from Juventus in 2016.
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They also landed Romelu Lukaku for £75m and snapped up Alexis Sanchez in a swap deal with Arsenal, having the Chilean a £400,000-a-week contract. Whether or not Solskjaer gets similar backing in the transfer market remains to be seen.
The Norwegian appears keen to grow United’s young players and has restored faith in Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial in recent weeks