Lukaku's personal debt to Carrick

Romelu Lukaku issued a personal thank-you message to Michael Carrick, after benefiting from one-on-one work with the club's former skipper.

Manchester United's top scorer last term, in his first campaign at Old Trafford, is currently preparing for Belgium's latest warm-up game ahead of the World Cup finals, with Egypt providing the opposition in Brussels. The international is being shown live on MUTV in UK/IRE with kick-off at 19:45 BST.

Lukaku revealed towards the end of the campaign that he has been having video tutorial sessions with Carrick, who is becoming part of Jose Mourinho's coaching staff on a permanent basis next season.

Carrick has worked with Paul Pogba on a similar basis, and other players, and is passing on his knowledge and insight to his colleagues as they strive to make improvements to their game.

“Michael – first of all, I want to say a big thank-you for what you’ve done for me since January,” declared the striker. “I mean not a lot of people will know that now we do video sessions after every single game to prepare for the next game and, like I've said, sometimes you think those video sessions don’t help me going forward. But they do because I became a better player and I became a better version of myself.

"I think it also starts in training when we do the extra bits and the extra exercises to become a better player. Your eye for detail really helped me a lot more. I’ve had a lot of mentors in my young career and you’re certainly one of them.

“I hope you can continue this process next season. It will be a joy to work with you in the staff next season. Hopefully, I can improve on the bits and pieces that you want me to improve on.

"Good luck after your career and I hope to see you in pre-season so we can start a new chapter in the work that we do.“

Lukaku and Marouane Fellaini have both been confirmed in coach Roberto Martinez's 23-man squad for the finals in Russia and will be out to impress against Egypt in front of their home supporters.