Roberto Martinez confirmed Lukaku has a muscle problem and has left the team before the Nations League 3rd place match against Italy tonight.
Lukaku misses Nations League 3rd place match
Romelu Lukaku scored once in Belgium’s 2-3 loss to France in the Nations League semi-finals on Thursday. After a day of rest and recovery on Friday, Lukaku did not attend training with his teammates the next day.
Coach Roberto Martinez confirmed Lukaku has a muscle problem and has left the team before the match against Italy to compete for third place in the Nations League tonight. This will certainly worry coach Thomas Tuchel because it is not clear how much time Lukaku will need to recover while he has missed five consecutive games at Chelsea.
Coach Martinez said: “Lukaku and Hazard had a similar situation, they were overloaded with muscles. But here we don’t have the facilities to do the usual medical work, so they will be leaving the team so that they can begin the fastest recovery process for the club.
We have a feeling they don’t have 100 per cent capacity. I don’t know how their injury will turn out, but it’s certainly not the injury Meunier is suffering. The Belgian and Chelsea medical staff have a good relationship with each other. We always want to do what’s best for the players and every decision is made in agreement with the club.”
After shining in the first matches for Chelsea, Lukaku has lost the last 5 matches in a row. Some experts believe that the opponents have caught Lukaku, while coach Conte insists that Tuchel does not know how to use the Belgian striker.
