Roberto Martinez has loosely suggested Romelu Lukaku may need to leave Chelsea ahead of the World Cup later this year.
Lukaku’s return to Stamford Bridge has not gone well since his summer switch from Inter. The 28-year-old has managed only five Premier League goals this season and lost his position in the regular starting XI after revealing he was not happy at Chelsea and wanted to return to Italy back in December.
The showpiece in Qatar is potentially the last chance some of Belgium’s golden generation will get to win silverware on the international stage, and manager Martinez has admitted he wants all his players to feel good as the tournament approaches.
He said: “I’m not going to judge or assess the condition of any player until after the summer because it is not a normal situation.
“It is still seven months to the World Cup and probably you will go into the details of how a player feels when it gets closer to it than now.