Romelu Lukaku to take Zlatan Ibrahimovic's No 9 shirt, Lindelof to wear 2, Manchester United confirm

The striker joined from Everton for a reported £75million earlier this week and the club confirmed he will now switch numbers from the No 10 he used to wear while at Everton.

Lindelof, meanwhile, who joined from Benfica for £30million earlier in the summer, will wear the No 2 shirt that has been vacant since Rafael switched to Lyon in 2015. Numbers 3, 4, 5 and six were already taken by Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Paul Pogba respectively.

Lukaku had indicated the reason for his switch of shirt in an earlier interview with ESPN – and revealed he asked Ibrahimiovic's permission to take the number.

"I always asked my mother what number, and I used to play with the 10 because my mother’s birthday is on the 10th of October, so it’s the 10th month of the year," he said. "That’s why I played with No. 10."

"I asked for the No 9 because I’m a striker. Strikers play with No 9.

"It’s a nice number, and I asked the permission of Zlatan Ibrahimovic."