For those who appreciate their catenaccio, it was almost the perfect result. A 0-0 draw for Inter away from home against Porto to follow up a 1-0 win thanks to a late penalty in the first leg would have had Helenio Herrera smiling approvingly. But for Romelu Lukaku, it was a day of mixed blessings.
The contrast with his last spell in Milan is stark. Between 2019 and 2021, having escaped the listing ship at Manchester United, he exploded into the most successful period of his career, winning a Serie A title, finishing as a runner-up in the Europa League and scoring 64 goals in 95 games in all competitions. It was enough to persuade Chelsea to part with £97.5m in the ill-fated move that took him to Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2021.
It’s the fact that his injury rate has accelerated so greatly over the last couple of years that makes you start to wonder whether he’s in the autumn of his career. He never used to be an injury-prone player. He lostbetween January 2014 and December 2017. He’s lost 266 since, including 92 since the start of this season alone.
Considering the risk assessment approach that clubs take towards transfers now, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to find Lukaku has failed this particular test. After all, even very big clubs like Inter are in a transfer market with the financially bloated Premier League. Every penny counts, and they can’t afford to be paying big wages to someone who may end up on the treatment table half the time.
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