Romelu Lukaku will complete a projected £73.9 million move to Inter Milan on Thursday subject to a successful medical as Manchester United’s AWOL striker nears an acrimonious exit from Old Trafford.

United and Inter finally reached an agreement on Wednesday night after weeks of protracted talks. Inter have agreed to pay an initial £64.7m with a further £9.2m payable in add ons as one of the summer’s most drawn out transfer sagas draws to a conclusion.

United - who rejected an opening £54m bid from Inter last month - have also negotiated a sell-on clause for Lukaku. Everton are due a £5m windfall from Lukaku’s impending sale to Inter under the terms of the deal that took the Belgium striker to Old Trafford from Goodison Park in 2017. United had been seeking a profit on their original £75m outlay.

Lukaku flew to Milan’s Malpenza airport on Thursday night from Brussels with his agent, Federico Pastorello, ahead of his medical with Inter on Friday. Pastorello posted pictures of the pair on a private plane and at Malpenza airport on his Instagram. There were more than 200 Inter fans at Malpenza airport to greet Lukaku following his arrival in Milan around 2am. Lukaku appeared to loud chants of his name as he waved to the assembled crowd.

Lukaku is expected to earn a basic annual salary of €7m a year after tax, with bonuses on top, that is likely to mean wages similar to the total £255,000 a week deal he earned with United. Pastorello had been in London on Wednesday for further talks with United on Inter’s behalf after weeks of tense negotiations, during which time the player’s relationship with United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, has become increasingly strained.

Lukaku has been fined two weeks’ wages - the equivalent in base salary terms of about £230,000 - by United for missing training without permission this week as well as a controversial tweet last Friday in which he divulged confidential training data.

Lukaku has spent two days this week training at former club Anderlecht credit: PA

Lukaku, 26, angered Solskjaer by revealing in his tweet the speeds run by United’s squad during a training session in Perth on July 10 on the first leg of United’s pre-season tour. Lukaku felt his tweet was merely a response to critics who have accused him of lacking pace and fitness but he was ordered to delete it.

It led to a heated meeting between Solskjaer and Lukaku on Sunday in which the player felt he was told he had to work away from United’s first team. Lukaku - who has missed all six of United’s pre-season matches with what was officially cited as an ankle injury - ended up travelling to Belgium to train with his former club Anderlecht.

Although pictures of Lukaku training with Anderlecht on Monday bemused United officials, it was explained that the players were on a day off but that the Belgian would be expected back on Tuesday. Yet Lukaku failed to report, spending another day at the Neerpede complex outside Brussels, and he is understood to have remained in Belgium on Wednesday.

Lukaku’s failure to report at Carrington is understood to have resulted in him being fined although whether the player opts to contest the punishment in the belief he did have permission to be away from the club remains to be seen. United have yet to officially comment on the matter. Lukaku earns a basic salary of £115,000 a week, albeit more than double that once bonuses and image rights are factored in.

Antonio Conte, the Inter coach who tried to bring Lukaku to Chelsea before United’s late hijacking of the move in 2017, had feared he would miss out on the player once again when United began negotiating with Juventus as part of a proposed swap deal with Paulo Dybala.

But that potential move collapsed over the weekend when United backed away from a deal due to reservations about Dybala’s willingness to move to Old Trafford, his huge wage demands and demands for agents’ fees thought to be in excess of £13m, as well as complications over the Argentina striker’s image rights.

That cleared the way for Inter to sign Lukaku but their failure to offload Mauro Icardi this summer had proved a complicating factor in their efforts to sign Conte’s primary transfer target.

Whether United manage to bring in a replacement for Lukaku before the close of the Premier League transfer window at 5pm on Thursday remains to be seen.

Solskjaer is thought to be comfortable with his squad and, determined that the Lukaku saga does not overshadow preparations for the opening match against Chelsea at Old Trafford on Sunday, he has been happy for the Belgium to leave without a replacement. The form of 17-year-old Mason Greenwood in pre-season has encouraged Solskjaer and he will ask Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial to spearhead the attack. Alexis Sanchez remains available, too, after United failed to find a buyer for the Chile striker this summer.

United have distanced themselves from links with the former Tottenham striker but have retained an interest in the veteran Croatia forward, Mario Mandzukic, who was initially discussed as part of the Lukaku/Dybala swap talks.

Lukaku has struggled to win over Solskjaer, who wanted a more fluid attack able to press aggressively from the front and has not felt the Belgian was the right fit for his team’s style of play. Solskjaer has prioritised retaining another unsettled player in Paul Pogba, who publicly voiced his desire to seek a new challenge elsewhere in June but none of the France midfielder’s suitors, including Real Madrid, have been able to meet United’s £160m plus valuation.

United, meanwhile, have rebuffed an approach from Everton to take defender Chris Smalling on a season-long loan.