Lukaku & Rashford Ineligible for 'Man of the Match' Award for Two Very Different Reasons

New Manchester United signing Romelu Lukaku was denied the chance to be considered for a 'Man of the Match' vote, because he is a Muslim.

The former Chelsea and Everton star would have been an option for fans to choose after his showing against neighbours Manchester City, but he was not allowed to be considered because of his religious beliefs relating to alcohol.

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As a result of following Islam, Lukaku can't drink alcohol and cannot be pictured posing with any alcoholic beverages, and the main sponsor of the first ever overseas Manchester derby was Dutch brewery Heineken, as reported by the Sun.

Supporters were only able to choose from Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan for the award, despite a great showing from Lukaku who scored.

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What's more, Rashford was dropped from the vote as well because the legal drinking age in Texas is 21, meaning that by process of elimination, Armenian star Mkhitaryan bagged the award.

The ICC had actually asked all participating clubs to send them a list of Muslim and U21 players in order to help them out with choosing the Man of the Match voting options.

Lukaku and United have been going well in pre-season so far - the Red Devils went on to topple Real Madrid in a less-than-impressive penalty shootout to beat them.

On the transfer front, Jose Mourinho remains hopeful of signing Ivan Perisic but has been linked to Emil Fosberg in recent days, as well as Fabinho, Eric Dier, Marco Verratti and Nemanja Matic.