Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has been forced to come out and address reports that Edinson Cavani will end his stay at Manchester United after just one season.
Signed just last summer, Cavani will be a free agent in summer, unless the 12-month option in the deal is triggered.
But in an interview with Argentine outlet TyC Sports, the player’s father, Luis Cavani suggested he will most likely return to South America, with the 34-year-old not "feeling comfortable in England" and wanting to be "close to his family" in his native Uruguay.
Solskjaer meanwhile, has claimed that talks have still yet to get fully underway, but the striker is fully focused on his football with the Red Devils.
He said: "Edinson is fully focused on being available for us and working really hard to get fit.
"From my broken Portuguese and his better English he is very proud to play for Man United.
“A decision hasn't been made - we are just working on getting him back.
"We will convince him [to stay] when the weather in Manchester improves!"
Cavani has made an impact at Old Trafford, netting six goals in the Premier League, from just 900 minutes. But it’s perhaps off the field where his influence has been even clearer to see.
Several of his teammates have opened up on the aura that he has brought to Carrington, particularly to the younger strikers in Solskjaer’s squad.
Speaking earlier this year, 19-year-old Mason Greenwood said just watching how the Uruguayan prepares for training has been a useful experience.
“He’s a top striker, you can tell the second he came here,” Mason told the club’s website in January.
“The stuff he does, the way he dresses himself, the way he trains, the way he does everything right as a footballer really.
“He reminds me a lot of Juan [Mata] who’s here as well, and Nemanja [Matic] – two great professional players. It’s always good to have them in your team, as a young lad, to look up to and to take note of.”
Cavani is regularly seen talking his younger teammates through games, including Marcus Rashford, during the 9-0 win over Southampton.
Rashford himself is also fully aware of just how much he has added to their options going forward. “He's a top player, he has lots of qualities and I think he gives us another dimension that's different to what we already have in the team.
“It's good to play with him and to see him scoring and assisting is important.”
Paul Pogba is another who has taken advice from the former Paris Saint-Germain forward, seen talking to him pitchside ahead of the win over Burnley at Turf Moor in January.
And speaking about his colleague, the French international bracketed him as one of the top players in the world in his position.
He said: “Everybody knows that Edi is a top-class striker and there’s few strikers like this in the world, and we had the chance to have one.
“We know the hardest goals are those goals. We have talented players – Anthony Martial, Rashy in front, even Mason, that they can shoot from outside and stuff – but they don’t have this, the experience of Edi, and they don’t have the same quality of Edi as well.”
United manager Solskjaer is also fully aware of the role model mantle his summer acquisition has taken on, comparing his arrival to Teddy Sheringham’s in 1996.
He may not be able to wait for a sunny Manchester day before actually kick-starting talks.
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