Manchester United have told Romelu Lukaku to delete a controversial social media post revealing confidential details of a training sprint session. The striker, thought to be on the verge of a move to Serie A, took to Twitter on Friday to respond to criticisms that he lacks pace by posting statistics from a running test on the Perth leg of United’s July pre-season tour.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was among the United hierarchy to take a dim view of Lukaku divulging such information publicly. Lukaku, who is keen on a move to Juventus or Inter Milan, has since removed the post, which revealed the Belgium forward was second to only Diogo Dalot in a session, which charted the speeds of 22 other first-team players. The tweet was accompanied by the words “lack of pace” alongside running emojis.
Harry Maguire was undergoing a medical at United’s Carrington training ground on yesterday morning before finalising an £85mn move from Leicester City, while Solskjaer is keen to add further to his squad before Thursday’s transfer deadline. Paulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic have both been linked with moves to Old Trafford, though the former is understood to be sceptical about any move. A 24-man United squad are in Cardiff to play Milan in the International Champions Cup but Paul Pogba, who admitted in June that he wanted a new challenge, has not travelled. United said the France midfielder did not go to Wales because of a recurrence of a back spasm, though some reports have suggested Pogba skipped Friday’s flight from Manchester owing to his desire to force through a move. “At the end of the session today, Paul got a back spasm, the same issue he had last week, when he missed the session in Norway,” Solskjaer said.