Odion Ighalo faces Manchester United setback due to Coronavirus threat

Odion Ighalo faces Manchester United setback due to Coronavirus threat. The Nigerian will not join their training camp in Spain.

Manchester United striker Odion Ighalo will not join the rest of the squad for their Spanish training camp. The Nigerian made a last-minute move to England from Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua in the January transfer window.

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However, the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, which has already taken several lives in the country, has meant that Ighalo will not be able to join the rest of the squad when they take to Spain for a training camp in the ongoing winter break.

Odion Ighalo faces Manchester United setback due to Coronavirus threat

“Odion will stay in Manchester, because he arrived from China in the last 14 days,” manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told United’s website.

“Because of the situation in China, we’re not sure if he’d be allowed back into England if he leaves the country again, so he’s staying here working with a personal coach, individual programme and his family then can settle in England as well. That’s a plus.

“Of course, he might have liked to have come with the players and got to know them, but the risk [of potential border restrictions tightening], we don’t want to take that.”

Odion will be joined by Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford; both of whom are currently injured. Meanwhile, midfielder Scott McTominay and defender Axel Tuanzebe, who have both been out with long-term injuries, will also travel with the rest of the squad.

“Scotty has done better in his recovery than we thought, so we will take him with us,” Solskjaer said. “Hopefully he can join in the training sessions and Axel as well, he’ll join in, so that’s two positives and it’s a good chance for them to use this time with the players.”

United are not due to return until late on Friday before their Premier League game against Chelsea on Monday.

“Of course, we come back and we kick on,” Solskjær said. “We want to get results. Towards the end, before this break, we played okay and didn’t concede too many goals. But we didn’t create chances and missed that little bit of spark – maybe because of the mental tiredness. Physically, they did really well in every aspect of the games but mentally, now, we kick on.”

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