Louis van Gaal has made Kevin Strootman a £30 million (€37 million) January target for Manchester United – and the midfielder would be open to the move should Roma consider it, although there is yet to be any official contact between the clubs.

The Dutchman is recovering from a serious knee injury that has ruled him out of Van Gaal’s Dutch squad for the World Cup in Brazil, with the 24-year-old not expected to play again until the autumn.

While Strootman is content at Roma and has four years left on the contract he signed last summer, he is aware of Van Gaal’s admiration, with the 62-year-old having selected him regularly for the national squad. However, Strootman’s agent, Chiel Dekker, insisted that only if Roma were minded to sell would the transfer potentially occur.

He admitted Strootman, who has been injured since March, might be of interest to Van Gaal in the future.

“Roma do not want to sell. The first thing is it’s all between [the] clubs. And it’s also a very difficult decision because he has to choose between a fantastic club in Rome, a club that bought him and supported him while he was injured and then you have his personal coach of the national team at United.

Happy to stay

“The clubs have to decide. He’s very happy at Rome, he’s happy to stay because they play Champions League next season and happy to recover from his injury, so at this stage we are not part of any discussion.”

Asked what type of midfielder Strootman is, Dekker said: “He’s all – so he’s creative, he’s box-to-box, he scored nine goals [last season] as a midfielder.”

Strootman, who made 24 Serie A starts and scored five goals in the league before suffering the injury in a match against Napoli, previously played for PSV Eindhoven before the transfer to Roma for about €20m. Having previously played for Utrecht and Sparta Rotterdam, Strootman has 25 caps for the Netherlands and three goals. Guardian Service