Manchester United of England striker, Odion Jude Ighalo has received an all-clear verdict from the raving ailment called coronavirus, as he completed a two-week period of restriction without any symptoms of the deadly disease seen in him, megasportsarena.com reports.
Ighalo had to be placed through a period of confinement from mixing with his new teammates at Manchester United’s training ground as a precautionary move, considering that he arrived in England from China, where coronavirus first emerged in one of the Asian country’s provinces of Wuhan.
A report by Daily Mirror claimed on Wednesday that Ighalo, who joined United in a January transfer window deadline day loan deal from Shanghai Shenhua of China had been banned from The Red Devils’ AON Training Complex in Carrington amid fears of him spreading coronavirus.
However, Sky Sports News’ reporter, James Cooper later clarified that the 30-year-old former Super Eagles’ striker has not tested positive for the virus and had only been put on a two-week incubation period as part of the British government’s precautionary procedures.
With that period of incubation ending this weekend, and coinciding with United’s return from their warm-weather training camp in Marbella, Spain, which Ighalo had missed on account of concerns over the same ailment, he will now join the squad in team training for the first time.
Before now, Ighalo had been training in Manchester’s Taekwondo Centre on Etihad Campus and he will now join full training with the squad, as he hopes to be part of The Red Devils’ line-up when they play away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday.
Cooper told Sky Sports News: “I think there’s been a lot of hysteria quite naturally surrounding the coronavirus, but what Manchester United have done is precautionary, and certainly from their point of view it far exceeds the government guidelines on treating somebody or working with somebody that’s come from China.
“When Ighalo was signed on Deadline Day he arrived from China but not from the Wuhan province, a lot of people coming from China were done by the same stipulation that they might come from the Wuhan province, and of course he’s on a 14-day incubation period.
“Manchester United quite naturally felt it was right and wise for him to train away from Carrington. There are a lot of reasons for that, clearly there’s a risk of infection, apparently very minor, and it’s an elite training base.
“You wouldn’t want that to happen because thereby you’d have another 14-day incubation problem and Manchester United wouldn’t be able to play football games. There’s also the matter, of course, that United are out in Spain at the moment on their winter break training camp with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“What’s been happening is Odion Ighalo has been working in Manchester city centre with a personal trainer, in contact of course with the training staff that Solskjaer has with him in Spain. They’ve just been going through that with the expressed intention of getting him fit for the game against Chelsea, which I think he’ll be a part of.
“I don’t think he’ll be in Solskjaer’s starting 11, but I think he might well be on the bench, somebody that Ole could use on Monday evening at Stamford Bridge as substitute. There’s a fear that he hasn’t been integrated in terms of the personnel but I think they have worked on his fitness and this is all precautionary, he’s stayed away from the training ground.
“Once the two-week incubation period is over – which of course coincides with this weekend and the return of Manchester United from Spain – then he’ll be able to integrate with the team, go down to London and be part of that first-team squad.
“Manchester United certainly think that they have far exceeded the government on this, but they are working sensibly and practicably in this situation where of course you’re looking at a league training centre and you don’t want any risk of infection. Odion Ighalo has been doing his fitness work in Manchester on his own and that has been the plan all along.”
