Marcos Rojo's agent Jonathan Barnett admitted that the Argentine is unlikely to stay at Manchester United beyond this summer after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer apparently courted a potential replacement live on camera.
Following his club's 5-2 thrashing of Bournemouth at the weekend, the United manager appeared to give Cherries defender Nathan Ake a few telling words of advice.
While his statement was interpreted by BT Sport as “Good luck. You need a bit of luck from your centre-backs. Just keep going," others contended that Ake was told something quite different.
“We need a left-footed centre-back, keep going," was the alternative message gleaned from the full-time clip; and in any case, Rojo's future at Old Trafford seems destined to come to an end.
“I couldn’t comment on what Solskjaer thinks but I think it’s obvious, I think with Rojo, probably [a move] is more than likely somewhere else," the player's agent Barnett remarked to Stretty News when questioned on the chance of a summer sale.
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The Argentina international's loan return to boyhood club Estudiantes in January was interrupted first by injury and later by the coronavirus pandemic, which brought football in Argentina screeching to a halt in March.
Rojo managed just a single appearance for the Pincha in 2020, and despite no definitive date yet set for the return of Argentine football, he chose to remain in La Plata following the expiry of his loan deal on June 30 and is keen to stay put in the longer term - although Estudiantes are not the only interested party.
"My plan was to stay in Argentina, because I want to continue with Estudiantes. But something happened: I got a call from Boca to see what I was thinking of doing and at first it moved me," he stated to Fox Sports.
"Roman (Juan Roman Riquelme, Boca vice-president) called me. I was really excited, because he is a legend. My old man is a Boca fan. I grew up watching him. We spoke, I told him the situation and we agreed to talk further.
"Afterwards I thought it through and told him it wasn't the time to move to Boca."
Barnett added on the prospect of his client staying in Argentina: “I don’t know yet. I’m not sure.” Rojo remains under contract until June 2021 at United, with the club possessing the option to extend for a further season should they wish.