Sanchez may still have role to play in Reds’ season run-in
ALEXIS Sanchez could play an unlikely role in United’s run-in if the Premier League stages a successful restart.
The 31-year-old is on loan at Inter Milan but his contract with the Italian club expires on June 30 and English top-flight clubs are preparing to play the rest of the season well into July.
Italian sides have received permission to return to training this month but there is still no resolution over the possible extension of players’ contracts that finish at the end of June.
Should Sanchez return to United and manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer considers him for selection, the club would require approval from the Premier League to register him in their squad. Premier League clubs are allowed a maximum of 17 players who are not homegrown and United currently have 10.
The Premier League could relax registration rules to complete the 2019-20 season since a number of clubs could permanently lose players who are coming to the end of their contract.
Odion Ighalo might have played his last game for United, with his loan from Shanghai Shenhua due to expire on May 31. The Chinese Super League is expected to begin in June or July and, although United are open to extending Ighalo’s loan, they are relaxed about the possibility of him leaving because Marcus Rashford and Paul Pogba are fit again.
In a January press conference, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer claimed ‘Alexis will come back in the summer and prove you all wrong’, but was partly provoked by a reporter who, midway through the managers’ sentence, expressed surprise at the suggested return of Sanchez. Senior United sources have confirmed Solskjaer wanted to sell the player last year.
Inter have all but decided not to make a permanent move for the former Arsenal forward, whose form and fitness have not improved with a change of scenery. An ankle injury has restricted the Chile international to two starts in Serie A and Sanchez has not completed 90 minutes in a league game since August 2018.
United did not insert a recall clause into Sanchez’s deal and Inter do not have an option to buy. Sanchez is contracted to United until 2022 and M.E.N. Sport revealed in February the club had started looking for potential buyers. Inter are paying 75 per cent of Sanchez’s £400,000 weekly net wages.
The player has managed 655 minutes across 15 matches for Inter and scored once. He has been linked with a move to Major League Soccer upstarts Inter Miami.
The Chile national coach, Juan Antonio Pizzi, said Sanchez ‘didn’t seem to be able to connect and emotionally he dropped’ at United. Sanchez has not played for the club in more than a year but played four 90-minute matches for his country in the Copa America last summer.
Sanchez scored five goals in 45 games for United before he joined Inter, where Antonio Conte has preferred a front two of Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez.