United are ready to pip Arsenal to Gyokeres, however, with money now available to spend despite already sealing a deal for Matheus Cunha and talks underway to land Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo.
Gyokeres had been linked with a move to Old Trafford in the January window, which would have seen him link up with former boss Ruben Amorim once again, but the United head coach promised not to sign any of his ex-players mid-season.
He failed to rule out the possibility of United signing Sporting players in the windows to follow, however.
"I won't [sign Sporting players] in January, that's what I said," Amorim previously confirmed. "I don't know about the summer.
"The first point is to hold on until the summer. Sporting players are very good players, I don't know, we'll see. I know the phenomenon of football especially in England, and I know how things change.”
Gyokeres is said to be willing to head to Manchester, even though United are unable to offer any form of European football.
He pulled out of Sweden’s squad for the international break owing to a minor injury concern, though national team boss Jon Dahl Tomasson has denied the suggestion that Gyokeres’ absence is related to the engulfing transfer saga.
"No,” he rubbished. “He felt a small injury and our medical team was already aware of it and we decided, together, to release him. I spoke to Viktor last week. He hasn’t trained much in the last few weeks and was feeling some discomfort because of a small injury.
"I was happy to see him and have him with us in this training camp. It says a lot about Viktor, how much he wants to get involved. We're thinking about it [a replacement] and need to talk more about it. In a perfect world, we have all players available."