Wayne Rooney and Romelu Lukaku were undergoing medicals on Saturday evening to trade clubs next season between Everton and Manchester United.

Although ostensibly separate, negotiations have been eased by the mutual interest in deals that have seen Rooney permitted a return to his boyhood club on a free transfer and United paying £75 million for Lukaku.

The medicals were happening almost simultaneously on Saturday, with Lukaku in Los Angeles before United’s pre-season tour to the United States despite Chelsea’s late attempts to salvage a deal and Rooney making what must have been a hugely emotional return to Everton and their Finch Farm training base.

Rooney is United’s record goalscorer and has achieved club-legend status in 13 largely successful years in which he has won five Premier League titles, three League Cups, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

United took the step early yesterday of announcing that a fee had been agreed with Everton for Lukaku and were sufficiently confident to add that a “further announcement” would be made in due course. Paul Pogba, who United spent £89 million on signing from Juventus last summer, also said on social media that he would see Lukaku, with whom he has been holidaying, at training in the morning.