Romelu Lukaku was called up by the Belgian national team for the friendly games before World Cup, but withdrew to work on his fitness. The 32-year-old striker has played little with Napoli this season (only 48 minutes in six matches, one goal scored) due to injuries, and wants to prioritise his chance of making it into World Cup, and further extend his record of the top Belgian goal-scorer of all-time with 89 goals (and second of all-time in European countries behind Cristiano Ronaldo).
However, turns out Lukaku is also ignoring his club's duties, as Napoli has announced today that they are considering side-lining the striker after he failed to report for training, and instead stayed in Belgium to continue his physical recovery.
"Napoli announces that Romelu Lukaku did not respond to today's call for the resumption of training. The club reserves the right to decide whether to take appropriate disciplinary action, as well as whether to keep the player on the team permanently", the Italian club said in a press release.
Lukaku responded on social media, saying that he would "never turn my back on Napoli", but right now he needs to make sure he is 100% clinically fit. "I haven't been lately and that's taken a toll on me mentally".
"In the end, I'll get there and help Napoli and the national team achieve their respective goals when I'm needed".