Odion Ighalo has not travelled to Manchester United’s training camp in Spain amid fears UK border controls could change due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The striker joined the Red Devils on loan from Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua on Deadline Day and arrived in Manchester last week.
Since then, the World Health Organisation has upgraded the coronavirus outbreak – which emerged from Wuhan, China – to a global emergency.
The disease has killed more than 700 people in China and three cases have been confirmed in the UK.
United are unwilling to risk complications with Ighalo re-entering the UK as border control continues to monitor people who have arrived from China in the last two weeks.
Red Devils boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told the club’s official website: “Odion will stay in Manchester, because he arrived from China in the last 14 days.
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“Because of the situation in China, we’re not sure if he’d 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.”
The decision comes as a blow to United, who are keen to get the former Watford striker up to speed before they return to Premier League action against Chelsea on February 17.
The 30-year-old is keen to make an instant impact at Old Trafford and has been undergoing double training sessions with Great Britain’s Olympic Taekwondo team since his arrival in England to work on his fitness.
