Romelu Lukaku has risked embarrassing Manchester United for the second time in a matter of days after he trained with his old club Anderlecht yesterday.
United maintain that Lukaku has been unable to train properly this summer due to an ankle injury that has forced the unsettled Belgium striker to miss all six pre-season games.
However, Lukaku, who is set to join Inter Milan or Juventus, took advantage of a day off to return to Brussels and join in a full work-out with the club’s Under-18s.
It is understood that he only informed Anderlecht yesterday morning after contacting their youth-team coach Mo Ouahbi, who also put him through an individual session.
United declined to comment when asked if their £75 million striker had permission to train with another club when supposedly injured, confirming only that the players were on a day off.
But they appeared to be caught out by Lukaku’s session at the Neerpede complex after pictures emerged of him wearing Anderlecht’s purple kit supplied by Joma.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/mufc?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mufc[ @hlnsport] pic.twitter.com/cf4VlQlkb5
— ManUnitedZone (@ManUnitedZone_)
That in itself is awkward, considering United are paid £75 million a year for their stars to wear Adidas kit.
It is the second time in four days that Lukaku has placed United in a difficult position after posting confidential stats from a sprint session to prove that he is one of the club’s quickest players.