Lukaku absence not hurting Manchester United – Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says he is impressed with how Manchester United are performing without the injured Romelu Lukaku.

The Belgium international is yet to feature for United in pre-season, with Solskjaer citing fitness issues for his continued absence from the team.

Lukaku missed United’s 1-0 International Champions Cup win over Inter on Saturday, with reports circulating before kick-off that the Serie A side had seen a £54million bid turned down for the 26-year-old.

Young striker Mason Greenwood scored the decisive goal against Antonio Conte’s men and Solskjaer says he is pleased with how his side is shaping up ahead of the 2019-20 campaign.

“I think we have done really well without Romelu, but we all know he is one of the top, top strikers in the world,” he told a media conference.

“We played a different way, maybe, with Anthony [Martial], Marcus [Rashford] and Mason.

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— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 20, 2019

“As a coach you adapt to the players that are available. We’re looking forward to the game against Tottenham [on Thursday] and let’s see who is available for that game.”

Solskjaer was unable to put a timescale on Lukaku’s return to fitness and says the striker will be “concerned” about his lack of time on the pitch.

“If you’re a player and you don’t manage to train for a week, and he’s missed three games now, I think he’ll be concerned,” the manager added.

“He’s working to get back on the pitch and we’ll see how long that takes.”