Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solksjaer on Tuesday has confirmed that recent-signing Odion Ighalo will play in upcoming English Premier League clash against Chelsea on February 18.
“Yeah, he is going to travel with us. We will just see his fitness work this week and I think we will get him sharp. We want to integrate him as quickly as we can because, of course, he is desperate to play for us,” the club’s official website quoted Solskjaer as saying.
Earlier, Solskjaer had claimed that Ighalo would not be a part of the club’s upcoming training camp in Spain since he came from China which has been under the grasp of deadly Coronavirus for some time.
“Odion will stay in Manchester because he arrived from China in the last 14 days,” Solskjaer had said.
The 30-year-old Nigerian striker Ighalo was brought to the Old Trafford club on a loan from Chinese side Shanghai Shenhua until the end of the season.
He was taken into the Old Trafford-based side as a desperate move to bolster the Manchester United attack which has been badly hit by Marcus Rahford’s injury and out-of-touch Anthony Martial.
Ighalo has earlier played in English club Watford from 2014 to 2017 before leaving for Chinese team Changchun Yatai. In his 82 appearances for Watford, Ighalo had netted 33 goals. He also has 16 international goals under his name in 35 appearances for the Nigerian national team.