Lukaku misses United’s friendly trip amid transfer talk

Romelu Lukaku will miss Manchester United’s pre-season friendly against Kristiansund on Tuesday amid renewed speculation of a potential move to Inter Milan.

United are reported to have rejected a £54 million ($66 million, 59 million euros) bid for Belgium striker Lukaku from Serie A club Inter.

Lukaku was sidelined by injury for all four of United’s pre-season games during their tour of Australia, Singapore and China.

After suffering an ankle injury, Lukaku trained on his own on the eve of the final match of United’s tour — last week’s 2-1 win against Tottenham in Shanghai.

On Sunday, a picture appeared on the 26-year-old’s social media accounts of him and his agent Federico Pastorello, accompanied by the message “soon to be continued.”

Lukaku is said to be keen to join Inter after a difficult spell at United since his £75 million moves from Everton in 2017.

With Inter believed to have been given an imminent deadline by United to conclude the deal, the former Everton striker was absent from his club’s 26-man travelling party to Norway.

United announced the squad on their official website on Monday ahead of the match at Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadium.

Meanwhile, United defender Eric Bailly is not part of the group heading to Norway after he sustained a knee injury in the victory over Tottenham.

Alexis Sanchez was another not included for United after limping out of Chile’s Copa America third-place play-off match against Argentina earlier this month.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side wraps up their pre-season against AC Milan in Cardiff on Saturday.