Despite Lazio, Lukaku’s current club who sit 6th in Serie A, allowing their left-back to go and visit Newcastle – seemingly giving their blessing on the move – the loan deal between Lukaku and Newcastle is now confirmed to be off.
Flying from Lazio to Tyneside on Friday to have a look around his potential new club and home, Jordan Lukaku’s announcement was all but a tweet from the club away, at least that is what was being reported before his arrival to the North East.
It was announced by Belgian media outlets late Friday evening that the deal between Lukaku and Newcastle had apparently hit trouble.
The deal has been pulled by the Magpies not because of personal or wage terms, which had apparently been agreed upon by both parties, but due to a failure of the player’s medical this afternoon.
Lukaku deal off
It didn’t take long for the news to break to social media, with it being rumoured that Lukaku was 6kg overweight for his medial according to his agent, Vincezo Morabito – @Toontransfer.
The Belgian left-back has missed 29 games since October of the 16/17 through injury since joining Lazio. These injuries include: two ankle injuries, two hamstring injuries and two knee injuries – the most recent ruling him out for 80 days and 10 games.
This alongside the fact that Lukaku has only notched up 231 minutes in 8 (7 Serie A, 1 Coppa Italia) appearances this season, his failure of a medical and rumoured extra weight is not what Newcastle are looking for to strengthen their squad and ensure Premier League survival.
With such an unfortunate injury history in such a short space of time, and lack of competitive game time, it is no wonder that Newcastle were weary to go through with acquiring such a troubled asset.
A Statement from the club read:
“Newcastle can confirm that Jordan Lukaku will not be joining the club. The defender was on Tyneside on Friday after being given permission to travel by Lazio. It has now been decided that a loan deal will not be pursued. We wish Jordan all the best for the future.”
This leaves Newcastle boss, Rafa Benitez, until Thursday’s deadline to sign a potential cover for Paul Dummett and many fans of the club wondering whether anything will materialise for them this winter window.
Rafa will now turn his full attention towards Monaco’s Antonio Barreca, a left-sided player who’s potential loan move could become permanent should he impress his boss by the end of the season.
While Newcastle faithful will remain hopeful they see some kind of arrival between now and the transfer deadline, the fact that they have failed to clinch the signings of Gelson Martins and now Jordan Lukaku, they should approach the reports of Barreca’s arrival with caution until club confirmation.
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