Lukaku, who joined Chelsea for £98m in 2021, was left out of Enzo Maresca’s squad for the team’s 2-0 opening day defeat by Manchester City on Sunday and has not played for the Blues for over two years.
He has spent the last two seasons on loan at Inter Milan and Roma, respectively, and could now be set to head back to Italy to play for a third different club.
Chelsea insist they want a permanent sale for closer to Lukaku’s £36m release clause, with the forward still having two years left on his Stamford Bridge contract.
Meanwhile, Chelsea and Napoli remain in talks over Victor Osimhen, although any deal would be separate to the one for Lukaku.
Osimhen has scored 76 goals in 133 appearances for Napoli over the last four years and fired the club to the Serie A title in 2022-23, but was not named in their squad for their first game of the season on Sunday.
That game proved to be a disaster for new manager Antonio Conte, as he watched his side lose 3-0 away at Verona.
He is now looking to bring Lukaku back to Italy, having previously worked with the forward at Inter.
Lukaku and Conte spent two seasons together at Inter from 2019 to 2021, with Lukaku scoring 47 league goals and winning the title in his second season at the San Siro prior to his lucrative move to Chelsea.
But things have not worked out for him in west London, and after just one season at Chelsea he was loaned back to Inter where he helped the club reach the Champions League final before they suffered a narrow defeat to City.
He returned to Italy last term, scoring 21 goals across all competitions for Roma.
A move to Napoli could be next on the cards as Conte and Co. look to bounce back from their humiliating opening day loss.
Chelsea remain active in the transfer market, and on Monday night it was revealed that they had reached an agreement with Atletico Madrid to sign Joao Felix on a six-year contract.
Felix spent the second half of the 2022-23 campaign on loan at Chelsea before moving back to Spain to spend a season at Barcelona.
Felix’s arrival is set to pave the way for Conor Gallagher to complete his switch to Atletico after the transfer stalled last week, leading to the England midfielder flying back to London to train with Chelsea’s Under 21s.
