Belgium international Lukaku was left out of the Chelsea squad that played out a 2-2 draw with Liverpool.
Neville says Lukaku will now have to show sorriness to the west London club and his team-mates, before restarting his Chelsea career.
Manchester United legend Gary Neville has been impressed by Romelu Lukaku’s authenticity and honesty in reveaing his unhappy state at Chelsea.
Although, the ex-United right back now football pundit said the big Belgian has disappointed Chelsea with his surprising interview.
Lukaku, who returned to Stamford Bridge from Inter Milan for £98m during the summer, was dropped by Blues manager Thomas Tuchel for Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool.
Tuchel decided to leave out the big Belgian because of the bombshell interview he gave in Italy in which he disclosed his unhappiness at the West London club, and didn’t hide his affection for Serie A side Inter Milan.
Speaking on his Sky Sports podcast, former England defender Neville said: 'We have to applaud Romelu Lukaku in some ways for being brave enough, or whatever you would call it, to come out and speak the truth.
'I've called for players to be more authentic, to be more honest.
'He is experienced. We have to imagine he knows those words will travel back and the impact those words would have.'
'If I was a Chelsea fan today, or a Chelsea coach or owner, I'd feel really disappointed by my player saying that, particularly when you've invested so much in him,' he said.
'What I would expect of Romelu Lukaku in the next few days is a "sorry, I didn't mean it."
'The best anyone can hope for now is more truth. "Look, I said the words I said, maybe I should have held them to myself but they were the truth.
"However, I will commit to my team-mates, I am sorry I caused the problems that I have caused to my team-mates in the build-up to a big game." That's the thing he has to apologise for.
'So the best he can do is ask for forgiveness in the dressing room with his team-mates.
'Players ordinarily forgive each other, they've all been in situations where they've made mistakes and you say "right, okay coach, he can come back in."
'I think Romelu Lukaku will have been watching that game, suffering a little bit I think, knowing he would want to be out there with his team-mates.'
He added: 'Tuchel has established that he is the boss, the owners have established that they are willing to support the manager over the player and the team-mates have gone out on the pitch and performed absolutely brilliantly without him.
'Lukaku will be reintegrated - I don't believe it's a case of he leaves the club, get him out in January - he can be reintegrated.
'I saw it at Man United a couple of times when players made mistakes, they made their desire to leave known and the manager said 'no, you're not leaving.'
'And they were integrated, they were forgiven and they did perform well for the club in the future. I think Lukaku coming back in could be a different Romelu Lukaku.'
Neville also said Lukaku might have had issues with commiting to United In the past.
'Romelu Lukaku was at my club (Man United) and I didn’t shed a tear at all when he left my club,' he said.
'He didn’t say he wanted to leave openly all the time but you could just tell. He didn’t want to be there, he wasn’t committed.
'I didn’t think he was the most professional and I didn’t think he was a Manchester United player.
'I knew he was an outstanding player and I knew he would go and score a bagful of goals wherever he went but he wasn’t right for the club.'
Follow Think Football Ideas across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Comments