Romelu Lukaku and Roméo Lavia make return to the Red Devils, Club Brugge revelation Joaquin Seys also selected

Romelu Lukaku is in the Red Devils’ 23-man squad for the last two games in the group stage of the Nations League, next Thursday in Brussels against Italy and three days later in Budapest against Israel, national coach Domenico Tedesco announced on Friday morning during a press moment at the national training center in Tubize.

Roméo Lavia is also celebrating his return after an absence of more than a year and a half due to persistent injuries. Club Brugge revelation Joaquin Seys is the only debutant in the selection. As announced, Kevin De Bruyne will not be there, nor will Youri Tielemans. The Aston Villa midfielder is struggling with a knee injury, according to the national coach.

Tedesco announced in October that De Bruyne would no longer play for the Devils this year. The playmaker celebrated his return to Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday after a thigh injury, but indicated to the national coach that he wanted extra time to take care of his body. That was also the case for Lukaku during the previous international break. The Devils’ all-time top scorer has not been there since the European Championship, officially to focus on his integration at his new club Napoli, but in a Friends of Sports podcast he confirmed that “the fire is not burning for a while”. Ultimately, Big Rom travels to our country for the last two international matches of the year.

For Lavia it has been since March 2023 that he was there again. The European Championship qualifier in Sweden and the friendly match in Germany were the first two matches with Tedesco as national coach, a few months after the painful elimination in the group stage at the World Cup in Qatar. Lavia immediately made a good impression in central midfield, but subsequently struggled from one injury to another. As a result, he was not present at the European Championships in Germany last summer.

The full selection: