Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has hinted that loan signing Odion Ighalo could make his Manchester United debut against Chelsea on Monday night.
The manager confirmed earlier this week that Ighalo would travel down to London with the rest of the squad, and suggested that the fact the Nigerian has not yet trained with his team-mates wouldn’t keep him out of contention for the match at Stamford Bridge.
“I never said he was going to be ready to play on Monday,” Ole told reporters at his pre-match press conference.
“He’ll be involved with us and he’ll travel down with us and, obviously, now he’s out of that two-week period of precaution and it’s a precaution we’ve made.
“He’ll travel with us and let’s see if he’s involved or not.
“He’s done his [training programme] and it was always going to be a case of him having to integrate into the group anyway after having been out in China. He needs to get used to the players and the team and up to speed as quick as he can.”
The Norwegian harked back to his own club debut, against Blackburn Rovers in 1996, when he came on as a substitute and scored.
“I didn’t have to have a training session to come on and do something.
“As a striker, sometimes you just get thrown out there and do what you can. It might be that he’ll have to come off the bench and get us a goal and then he just does whatever he’s always done.”
Ighalo’s fellow new signing Bruno Fernandes is in line to make his first United appearance away from home.
