\u201cI never thought about depression, but I cried every day for weeks. Even on holiday. Thierry Henry called me three times a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Romelu Lukaku might have thought those demons would never be exorcised. Almost broken by a personally devastating 2022 World Cup<\/a>, his selection for the Belgium squad four years later was underpinned by manager Rudi Garcia generously describing a player with 64 minutes to his name at club level this season as \u201cout of shape\u201d.<\/p>\n Napoli want rid of Lukaku after an injury-ravaged campaign, but there remains a place in this Belgium team for the nation\u2019s all-time top goalscorer.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not sure he\u2019ll be able to start the matches, but he\u2019s our best striker,\u201d Garcia said last month. It was a point the 33-year-old emphasised before he even had a touch against Egypt.<\/p>\n Within a minute of his introduction from the bench, Lukaku forced a Belgium equaliser. His mere presence as a forward willing to operate in the area and between the width of the posts rather than outside it and as far away from a threatening position as possible caused a temporary malfunction in the Egypt defence, with Mohamed Hany bundling the ball into his own net.<\/p>\n Lukaku, through his sheer existence and persistence, rescued a country many felt he had let down in Qatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018I don\u2019t know why some people in my own country want to see me fail,\u2019 Lukaku once openly pondered before the 2018 tournament; Belgium were doing a fine job of it themselves prior to his introduction.<\/p>\n Caught between an unsuccessful Golden Generation and what is more akin to a bronze cohort at best, this was a powerfully average performance from a fundamentally substandard team. Any flashes of individual brilliance were undermined by the same poor structures and mediocre coaching that have plagued Belgium for over a decade.<\/p>\n Jeremy Doku offered a mirage of energy and incision but his efforts were countered in quite the opposite way to how Cape Verde handled Spain<\/a>: the Manchester City winger was officially fouled five times, a count which did not include the moment he was actively assaulted in a brutal first-half Hany tackle.<\/p>\n