Odion Ighalo will not be joining his Manchester United team-mates at their Marbella training camp over fears he won’t be allowed back in the country.
United are fearful that UK immigration could tighten border restrictions following the outbreak of Coronavirus, which could prevent the striker from returning to England if he was to travel to Spain.
Ighalo was moved to United on a six-month loan deal from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua on transfer deadline day.
Coronavirus originated in China and has since been upgraded to a global emergency, with strict travel restrictions in place on people travelling to and from China.
UK border control are currently monitoring people who have travelled to England from China in the last 14 days – including Ighalo.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revealed the 30-year-old will stay behind in Manchester and work on his fitness with a performance coach.
He said: ‘Odion [Ighalo] will stay in Manchester, because since he’s coming from China in the last 14 days and the news of the virus there we’re not sure if he’s going to 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.’
Ighalo has linked up with performance coach Wayne Richardson, who previously worked with Mario Balotelli, and has been doing double sessions alongside Team GB’s Taekwondo team.
Ighalo had only just started pre-season training with Shanghai prior to making his shock move to United, but has been putting in the hard yards so he can make a flying start to life at Old Trafford.
‘We’ve done testing,’ says Richardson. ‘We’ve done endurance work, strength and conditioning, flexibility, mobility. There were sprint tests over five, 10, 15, 20 metres, one rep max, isometric pulls, and mid-thigh pulls to see where he is.
‘From there we can give him endurance work, running box to box, change of direction, change of speed. Ankle, knee and hip movements look at his sprinting, what he can do off the ball, analysis with that is fed back to the player.’
Source: DailyMail
