Lukaku makes goalscoring return for Napoli after 5 months out injured

Romelu Lukaku was amongst the goals in an informal friendly match for Napoli as he steps up his return from a serious injury that has kept him out of action for over five months. 

Lukaku has not featured competitively for Napoli this season after suffering a high-grade tear in his thigh during a pre-season friendly against Olympiacos, just one week before the Serie A season was due to commence. 

The Belgium international has missed 31 competitive matches so far this season: 21 in Serie A, seven in the Champions League, one in the Coppa Italia and two in the Supercoppa Italiana. 

There had been hopes that Lukaku would be fit enough to feature during the Supercoppa Italiana campaign in Saudi Arabia in December, but it was confirmed towards the end of the month that the 31-year-old had suffered a set-back in his recovery process. 

According to reports from La Gazzetta dello Sport, though, Lukaku is now closing in on a return to competitive action. 

The Pink Paper reveals that Napoli hosted an informal friendly against local Serie D side AC Savoia earlier this week, just after the 1-1 draw against Copenhagen in the Champions League. 

Officially, this was billed as a ‘joint training session’, but La Gazzetta dello Sport confirms that Napoli and Savoia played a 90-minute match, which ended 3-0 in favour of the Partenopei. 

Lukaku, Pasquale Mazzocchi and 18-year-old Ivan Anic provided the goals.