London - Odion Ighalo, Manchester United's January signing from China, has been training away from the club's facilities as a precaution due to the coronavirus outbreak, British media reported on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Nigerian international striker joined United on loan until the end of the season on January 31 - transfer deadline day - from Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.

He is due to meet with his United team-mates for the first time this weekend ahead of Monday's clash with Chelsea as they have been away at a training camp in Spain - Ighalo did not travel because of fears he might have problems re-entering the United Kingdom.

Both The Times and The Daily Mirror reported Ighalo had been told to stay away from the club's Carrington training centre - where hundreds of staff work - as he went through a 14-day quarantine period.

The former Watford star - who has not played a competitive match since December 6 - has instead been put through his paces by a personal trainer at the GB Taekwondo Headquarters in Manchester, not far from rivals Manchester City's ground.

The British government called the novel coronavirus a "serious and imminent threat", and said anyone with the disease can now be forcibly quarantined if they are deemed a threat to public health. There are nine confirmed cases in Britain.

More than 1 350 people have died in China from the virus, and nearly 60 000 others have been infected.

Most cases have involved people who had been in Wuhan, the quarantined central Chinese city where the virus emerged late last year, or people infected by others who had been at the epicentre.