Alvaro Morata has taken a short break from his honeymoon to return to Madrid in an effort to speed up a prospective move to Manchester United.

The Real Madrid and Spain striker has spent the past week in Ibiza following his wedding to Italian model, Alice Campello, in Venice 11 days ago.

Morata, 24, had hoped a deal would be well down the road to completion by now, but with Real holding out for at least £75 million after rebuffing an offer of around £65 million from United, negotiations threaten to drag on.

That has prompted Morata to take the extraordinary step of briefly leaving his new wife to travel back to the Spanish capital in a bid to persuade Real not to create a protracted process and to grant him his wish of joining United before resuming his honeymoon.

Morata has spoken to Jose Mourinho and indicated his eagerness to move to Old Trafford, despite interest from Chelsea. Mourinho gave Morata his Real debut in December 2010 when he was manager at the Bernabeu and there is a strong mutual admiration between the pair.