Ighalo’s loan stay at Old Trafford expires at the end of May, when he is scheduled to return to Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua.

Manchester United want to extend Odion Ighalo’s loan deal, with the Premier League side currently set to lose the striker before the season resumes.

The top-flight will not have returned by then – the current ‘tentative’ plans of what is known as ‘Project Restart’ are paving the way for action to resume in June, with hopes the 2019/20 campaign could be completed in early August.

United want the striker to remain at the club until the season is finished, having impressed during his spell at the Theatre of Dreams.

The former Watford man made his surprise dream move to Old Trafford in January, and the 30-year-old has scored four goals in three starts for the club.

But adding to his total of eight appearances for the team he supported as a boy has been complicated by the coronavirus crisis.

An extension would depend on the situation with Shanghai Shenhua, as the Chinese Super League edges towards the start of the season in the country where COVID-19 seemed to originated at the end of 2019.