Odion Ighalo sealed his loan extension at Manchester United today, four months after sneaking around hiring leisure centres for personal training sessions while his team-mates headed to Spain.

United’s surprise deadline-day signing had an inauspicious start at Old Trafford as he was blocked from warm-weather training in Marbella, having arrived from China following the outbreak of coronavirus. 

His reaction was to work with former Nigeria international Chuks Akuneto, a coach at Stockport County, during training sessions tailored for United’s new striker and preparing him to head straight into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s squad. United have now confirmed he will stay until January 31 next year.

Just before football closed its doors to prevent Covid-19 spread, Ighalo had scored a goal against LASK Linz where he juggled the ball on the edge of the area before finding the top corner, which reminded Akuneto of the tennis-ball session with the player seen in the video.   

“I had him juggling tennis balls as he hadn’t played in a while,” he said. “It is all about perception, like how a basketball player looks at the rim. Or a boxer punching and dodging. I needed to change the perception so it was sharper with a smaller ball and when he concentrated, he went back to a normal ball and it was much bigger. He scored a goal when he juggled the ball and I looked at that footage.” 

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