Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed that Odion Ighalo will not join up with the squad in Spain due to Coronavirus travel restrictions.
The Nigerian striker was signed on deadline day of the January transfer window on a six-month loan deal from Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua.
Despite being cleared to travel to the UK amid the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, Man United have taken the decision to keep the striker in Carrington instead of joining the team for their winter training camp in Marbella.
Ighalo has not contracted the virus, but Solksjaer said that the potential tightening of border restrictions could in turn prevent Ighalo from returning back to the UK.
Solskjaer told the club’s website: “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.
“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.”
Ighalo, who arrived in Manchester last Sunday, has already been familiarising himself with the city.
The Red Devils striker was spotted sampling a box of their Naija jollof rice in a picture uploaded to their Facebook page after stopping off with his agent.
