Romelu Lukaku has yet to return to Inter Milan as well as the Belgian striker had planned, but he is showing signs of life as his squad gets ready for Porto's Champions League visit.
The 2021 Serie A champion's anticipated triumphant return season is slow due to a slew of injuries and scorn for Lukaku's role in his nation's disastrous World Cup campaign.
The 29-year-old has made just seven appearances and scored three goals across all competitions for Inter since being returned there on loan from Chelsea last summer, a poor showing given all the close-season anticipation.
Lukaku netted a penalty on the second attempt on Saturday, his first Serie A goal since the first day of the season, helping Inter to a 3-1 victory.
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Unfortunately, it wasn't the most effective way to score again because his initial attempt from the penalty spot was awful. He only managed to score when a Udinese player was penalized for invading the penalty area.
To play with Lautaro Martinez, the other half of the formerly famous "Lu-La" duo, who has returned from Argentina's World Cup victory in sparkling form and has even donned the captain's armband, veteran Edin Dzeko is currently ahead of Lukaku in the line.
Since returning from Qatar, Martinez has scored eight goals across all competitions, and he will be coach Simone Inzaghi's primary weapon on Wednesday night.
His upbeat post-World Cup disposition contrasts sharply with Lukaku's mindset in the Gulf, where a broken dugout and a string of squandered opportunities against Croatia that destroyed the Red Devils' chances of making it out of the group stage were the only memories of a terrible tournament.
At the beginning of the year, Lukaku stated, "Croatia was a great disappointment, but I told myself: 'Romelu, you weren't 100%; you'd only had two training sessions.
When Chelsea paid well over 100 million euros for him in 2021, there was much discussion in the summer about how cash-strapped Inter could make the Italian location of his debt permanent.
But according to numerous reports in the Italian media, even though Inter wants to keep Lukaku, they must first ensure that his physical issues are right before they approach Chelsea about extending the loan for an additional year in exchange for four million euros.
With his squad vying for three spots in next year's competition and a chance to return to the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time since 2011, Inzaghi seemed eager to keep him around.
"Lukaku is getting better every day, every game, every training session. We have a lot of faith in Rom," Inzaghi stated following the Udinese victory.
"He had issues in London last season, we brought him back, and then he had a significant injury that kept him down for four months.
He is in good shape if he is beginning games, and playing will help him maintain that form.
