Gary Neville has accused striker Romelu Lukaku of being “overweight” and “unprofessional” as he nears his Manchester United exit.
The 26-year-old is poised to join Serie A side Inter Milan after United accepted a £73.7m offer for the striker, who has already travelled to Italy to complete a medical and agree personal terms alongside agent Federico Pastorello.
But the news of the Belgian’s departure was greeted with a strong response from former United defender Neville, who lashed out at the former Everton player for not controlling his weight during his time at Old Trafford.
“He admitted he was overweight! He is over 100kg! He’s a Manchester United player!” Neville tweeted in response to writer Andy Mitten on Twitter.
“He will score goals and do well at Inter Milan but unprofessionalism is contagious.”
It is not the first time that Neville has been critical of Lukaku over his weight.
In December last year, he questioned Lukaku’s preparation and approach to his football career by asking whether he had the right diet, training programme and coaching advice to get into the right shape.
"I struggle with the weight thing and maybe that's just because of how I was as a footballer," Neville told Sky Sports. "You could never take a chance with preparation. You could play badly, you could give goals away, you could make mistakes, you could miss chances, whatever type of player you are, these things happen in games. But actually, don't take a chance with preparation.
"Do I turn up every morning? Do I eat the right things? Do I go into the gym at the right times? Do I follow the programme?
"You can argue whether he has got the right programme and then you start to question your coaching staff and things like that, but I really do question that.
"In the modern age when you have 55 staff supporting every team, nutritionists, strength and conditioning coaches, I struggle to understand how a player can be allowed to feel like he has too much muscle or is overweight. Particularly when he's fit."
Lukaku scored 42 times in 96 games in two years as a United player but he failed to find the net in any of his final eight appearances for the club, with his last goals coming in the dramatic 3-1 win away to Paris Saint-Germain in early March.
Hundreds of Inter fans turned out at Malpensa Airport in Milan to welcome Lukaku in the early hours of Thursday morning, giving him a raucous reception upon his arrival as he waved to supporters alongside his agent.
Inter saw an initial €60m (£54m) offer for Lukaku rejected last month and saw the striker flirt with a move to Juventus as part of a swap deal for Argentina international Paulo Dybala, only for talks to collapse and Inter resume their pursuit of the Belgian.
And Lukaku’s agent appeared to confirm the imminent move himself late on Wednesday night, when he posted an image on Instagram of himself and the striker on a private jet destined for the Italian city, with the caption: “Ready to take of ... direction Milano.”
Having seen a swap deal with Juventus collapse due to Paulo Dybala's reluctance to go the other way, Antonio Conte's Nerazzurri returned with another bid as Lukaku started the week training with former club Anderlecht.
United's players had a day off on Monday and it was reported that Lukaku was expected back in Manchester on Tuesday with the rest of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's squad.
However, Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws published a photo of the striker training with Anderlecht once again - a matter United declined to comment on.
The player had joined the Old Trafford giants on their pre-season tour of Australia and Asia but failed to feature in any of their four matches due to knocks. He was also absent for the friendlies against Kristiansund and AC Milan upon returning to Europe.
