Romelu Lukaku’s World Cup in danger? If he is not ready for one of the group matches, it will be without him

Roberto Martinez will unveil, this Thursday at noon, his list of 26 players selected for the World Cup. The coach still has some trade-offs to make, but above all he has a big question mark which has still not been raised, and will be two hours before he takes the floor.

Martinez, in consultation with his medical staff, will indeed decide whether or not to take Romelu Lukaku to Qatar after a final meeting. The Inter Milan striker has been dragging a left hamstring injury since late August, and a relapse in early November raised serious doubts.

Clearly, and as he explained to the newspaper L’Equipe, Martinez is waiting to know from his medical staff if Romelu Lukaku is able to play at least one of the three matches in the group stage. “At the moment, he is not fit to play. It is in the hands of doctors. If he is fit to participate in one of the first three meetings, he is a player we need in our team. If he can’t, he won’t be accepted. We work day by day. As I speak to you, it is totally a medical decision. ”

At first, it was a question of recovering the top scorer in the history of Belgium for the match against Morocco, the second in the group stage after that against Canada. It is now a question of participation, or not, period.

The clock is therefore on, like what was done with Vincent Kompany during the 2018 World Cup. The central defender, who suffered from the same injury as Lukaku, arrived very uncertain at the start of the tournament. He had finally joined the list of 23 and had played the last quarter of an hour of the third pool match against England. We know the rest, Kompany had resumed his place in central defense until the match for third place.

Can history repeat itself for Lukaku? The decision that will be taken this Thursday morning will in any case condition a good part of the evolution of Belgium at the World Cup.