Manchester United have dropped their interest in Mario Mandzukic over Juventus's valuation and the player's high wage demands.

United initially looked at signing Mandzukic as part of the swap deal with Juve involving Romelu Lukaku and Paulo Dybala.

When those talks collapsed last week, United were still open to buying Mandzukic in a separate deal to replace Lukaku, who is now set to join Inter Milan.

Manchester United have ended their interest in veteran Juventus striker Mario Mandzukic

But it is understood that United were only looking at spending around £15million on the 33-year-old Croatia international, and were not prepared to meet Juve's asking price. The player's personal terms are also understood to be a factor in United's decision to walk away from negotiations.

They are now unlikely to buy a replacement for Lukaku ahead of Thursday's 5pm Premier League transfer deadline.

That possibility has been accepted at Old Trafford since the Dybala deal fell through, with United reluctant to buy a new striker for the sake of it.

Romelu Lukaku is on the brink of completing his £73million move to Inter Milan

The club saw enough on tour this summer from Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes and Tahith Chong to believe their academy youngsters can make a contribution this season to support Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, Alexis Sanchez and Dan James.

Lukaku's £74m move to Inter is expected to be confirmed on Thursday after the player has a medical in Milan.

Negotiations with his agent Federico Pastorello accelerated on Wednesday after Lukaku was fined two weeks' wages by United for going AWOL and training with his old club Anderlecht in Brussels.

Lukaku and Pastorello flew to Italy on Wednesday night to complete the deal and end a two-year stay at Old Trafford, with United recouping most of the £75m they paid Everton in 2017.