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Manchester United have confirmed that new signing Joshua Zirkzee will not travel to the United States to link up with his teammates who are currently on pre-season tour.
Earlier this month, United unveiled Zirkzee, having signed the striker from Bologna.
A report covered by The Peoples Person relayed that United agreed to pay Bologna €42.5m to secure Zirkzee’s services.
The goalscorer had a €40m release clause contained in his contract with the Serie A outfit but Erik ten Hag’s side elected to pay slightly more in order to spread the payments over a number of years.
United would have been obliged to pay the €40m in full if they were to trigger his release clause.
Zirkzee was not named in Ten Hag’s 29-man squad for the club’s US pre-season tour. He was excluded because of his involvement at Euro 2024.
The United man was part of the Netherlands team that reached the semi-final of the tournament before their elimination at the hands of England in the semi-final stage.
Zirkzee has now completed his summer break and reported for duty at Carrington for training earlier today.
Joshua Zirkzee has arrived at Carrington for pre-season! 😍#MUFC pic.twitter.com/fYZOqpxFn1
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 29, 2024
United also stated via their website, “The forward will not be involved in our final two games of Tour 2024, against Real Betis (Thursday 1 August, 03:00 BST) and Liverpool (Sunday 4 August, 00:45 BST), but will build his fitness at Carrington in preparation for the wider squad’s return to Manchester next week.”
The 23-year-old will almost certainly be working with Steve McClaren, who stayed behind in England to work with the players scheduled to return to Carrington after being involved with their respective national teams this summer.
Zirkzee coming back to United comes amidst fitness concerns over Rasmus Hojlund.
Hojlund was taken off in the first half of United’s friendly against Arsenal at SoFi Stadium.
The Denmark international grabbed United’s opener of the match but he sustained an injury just two minutes later.
Should Hojlund’s physical setback force him to miss the Community Shield clash vs. Manchester City on Saturday 10 August, there is a good chance that Zirkzee will be tasked with leading the Red Devils’ offensive line.
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