Premier League outfit Manchester United have clinched a surprise move for former Watford striker Odion Ighalo on transfer deadline day on a loan deal.
Ighalo is joining the Red half of Manchester on a loan deal for the remainder of the campaign but the club has no option to buy the player on a permanent basis.
There was finally a breakthrough of an arrival at United when they finally brought in Portuguese midfielder Bruno Fernandes for a fee of £46.5million (€55m) and a potential further £21.1m (€25m) in add-ons on Thursday and the club was also eager to bring in a striker prior to the end of the January transfer market.
With English forward Marcus Rashford on the sidelines due to a back injury, United was said to have had an approach for Norwegian forward Joshua King rebuffed by Bournemouth before turning their attention to Nigerian attacker Ighalo.
The 30-year-old Ighalo has spent the past three seasons in the Far East with Chinese Super League club, Shanghai Shenhua scoring 10 times last term after two prolific campaigns with Changchun Yatai.
But Ighalo will now bolster Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s attacking department, with United just managing to get a short-term loan deal completed before Friday’s transfer deadline day.
An official announcement from the club will come later, but it is understood that all aspects of the deal have been agreed and he will be unveiled as a United player soon.
Ighalo has Premier League experience from his past, having scored 16 goals for Watford in 55 top-flight appearances between 2015 and 2017 and hopefully, he can manage a few goals for the Red Devils as well during their troublesome time of late.
