Belgian national team head coach Roberto Martinez feels that Romelu Lukaku’s change of clubs to join Inter during the summer is not a reason for his injury struggles this season.
Speaking to today’s print edition of Spanish newspaper AS, as reported by FCInterNews, Martinez explained that the problem that Lukaku has been dealing with has instead been related to the fact that a muscle injury of this seriousness is new to him.
Lukaku has barely had a chance to get off the ground in the first few months of his second stint at Inter.
There had been high hopes for the Belgian upon his high-profile return to the Nerrazzurri on loan from Chelsea.
However, more than two months out with a thigh strain, followed by a recurrence of the same injury that caused him to miss out on the final few matches of the club season and will also see him miss the start of the World Cup has led to a disappointing start.
For his part, Martinez does not believe that these injury struggles have been caused by an adjustment to being back at Inter for the striker.
“The change of club was not the problem,” the coach said.
“The problem was that this has been the first muscle injury he’s had in his career.”
“He is a powerful player who pushes his physical abilities to the limit,” Martinez said of the Nerazzurri striker.
“It’s the first injury this bad that he’s dealt with, it’s been a difficult time.”
“When you don’t know how your body will react, everything is difficult,” the coach noted.
“We’ve worked well with the medical staff of Inter and we hope that he’ll have a good World Cup, our concern is that he reaches 100%.”