Rudi García says Romelu Lukaku’s fitness is not a concern for Belgium before Tuesday’s warm-up against Croatia, even if the striker is still not ready to start. The coach said the 33-year-old can help as a substitute as Belgium continues to measure how much he can give with the World Cup approaching.
The timing matters because Belgium are using the match in Rijeka to gauge their top scorer’s sharpness before the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Lukaku was called up despite playing only one hour of official football this season, a spell that underlines how little club rhythm he has had since February.
That lone appearance came in Verona, where he scored once for Napoli, but he did not start a league game all season and made seven substitute appearances before heading to Belgium in March to recover from a hamstring injury. García said he has never seen a player as motivated as Lukaku and added that the forward has been doing better than expected, scoring heavily in training.
Even so, the gap between training and competition still defines Belgium’s problem. García was blunt that Lukaku is not yet ready to begin a match and still has a long way to go before he can manage 90 minutes, which leaves open the more practical question for Tuesday: whether Belgium use him from the bench or keep him wrapped in caution a little longer.
Belgium open Group G against Egypt in Seattle on 15 June, then face Iran and New Zealand, so every minute Lukaku can handle before that first match matters. For García, the message before Croacia - Bélgica is simple: the national team sees enough progress to trust Lukaku’s place in the squad, but not enough to pretend the recovery is finished.
