November 20, (THEWILL) – There will be no Romelu Lukaku for Belgium in Qatar 2022 at least until their final Group F fixture against Croatia on December 1.
The forward, who is still recovering from a hamstring injury, missed the Red Devils’ first official training session since arriving in Qatar on Friday. Lukaku, the all-time leading scorer for Belgium with 68 goals in 102 appearances, was selected for the World Cup team despite the fact that coach Roberto Martinez acknowledged he was not at full strength.
The 29-year-old has had a challenging past 18 months after returning to Inter Milan on loan following a disappointing campaign with Chelsea. However, since sustaining an injury in a 3-1 loss at Lazio in August, he has only appeared twice for Inter.
He made an impressive comeback last month, scoring in a 4-0 victory over Viktoria Plzen to guarantee Inter’s passage to the round of 16, but he then injured his hamstring once more a few days later.
Belgium’s World Cup campaign gets underway against Canada on Wednesday. They then play Morocco before facing the finalists of the 2018 World Cup, Croatia, at the beginning of the following month. It is expected that Lukaku will have recovered enough to feature.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
