It looks to be far from certain that Inter striker Romelu Lukaku will start in his team’s Champions League round of sixteen first leg tie against Porto after his mediocre performance against Sampdoria yesterday evening.

This is the view in today’s print edition of Turin-based newspaper Tuttosport, via FCInterNews, who suggest that Nerazzurri coach Simone Inzaghi will be having second thoughts about the Belgian’s readiness to start against the Portuguese champions and could rely on Edin Dzeko instead.

The plan for Lukaku looks to have been to get the Belgian back to his best form in time to make a decisive impact against Porto in the Champions League clash next week.

However, in his start against Sampdoria yesterday, little progress was evident from the 29-year-old’s starting appearance against Atalanta and his substitute appearance against AC Milan.

Instead, despite a week to prepare, the Belgian showed little more than the flashes of quality that he had in has last couple appearances back from injury.

For this reason, it is doubtful that Lukaku will be deemed ready to play from the start against Porto, particularly if Dzeko is deemed to offer more certainty leading the line.