Nigerian footballer, Odion Ighalo who made a historic move from
Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua to English club side Manchester United few
days ago, will not travel to Spain for Manchester United’s winter
training camp.
Due to the Coronavirus outbreak in China and UK’s tighter border
restrictions on travellers who have been in China within the past 14
days, the Nigerian footballer will stay back in England as he may not be
allowed into the country again if he leaves.
Ighalo who is currently in Manchester, will stay in England “on a
personal training and fitness programme”. The English football club
said “it is simply a precautionary measure as the situation continues to
be monitored”.
The club’s manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also said;
“Odion will stay in Manchester, because he arrived from China in the last 14 days.
“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.”
Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Lee Grant will all miss the camp due
to injury. The Manchester United team will be returning to England late
on Friday February 14, before their Premier League game against Chelsea
at Stamford Bridge on Monday February 17.