Romelu Lukaku remains out injured for Manchester United and will almost certainly miss their crucial UEFA Champions League Group H clash at Juventus on Wednesday.
United’s squad trained in front of the TV cameras at Carrington on Tuesday before heading to Turin for the game on Wednesday.
Lukaku, 25, was not part of the full training session as he missed United’s win at Bournemouth over the weekend with a muscle injury he picked up in training.
It is believed he received treatment over the weekend in a bid to get him fit for the huge clashes against Juventus and then the Manchester Derby at Manchester City on Sunday (Watch live, 11:30 a.m. ET on NBCSN and online via NBCSports.com).
The Belgian striker had been dropped the previous weekend for the win against Everton, with Jose Mourinho stating that Lukaku “is not showing lots of confidence” after a run of nine games without a goal.
Speaking after the win at Bournemouth on Saturday, Mourinho had a small update on Lukaku’s condition.
“I have to wait until Monday,” Mourinho said. “He needs these couple of days. It was something in training. We don’t know, a muscle problem, and we have to wait a little bit.”
Reports have surfaced that Lukaku is far from happy at being dropped by Mourinho, with the Belgian striker having to battle away on his own up top for most of this season without a lot of service from United’s attacking players.
That said, he has missed several big chances in recent games and did so against Juve in United’s 1-0 UCL defeat at Old Trafford two weeks ago.
Right now, United’s attacking options of Alexis Sanchez, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are doing the trick without Lukaku and this injury could have come at precisely the wrong time for the Belgian striker.
In other injury news, both Antonio Valencia and Marouane Fellaini participated in the full training session, suggesting the duo could return to the United squad.
United sit second in Group H behind Juve (a win for Juve would seal their place in the Round of 16) and avoiding defeat at the home of the reigning Italian champions would be ideal ahead of their final two group games at Valencia and at home against Young Boys.