Galatasaray’s Technical Director, Okan Buruk, expressed concern over Victor Osimhen‘s injury as the striker races to recover in time for the club’s upcoming matches.
Victor Osimhen, 25, collided with Kasimpasa goalkeeper Andreas Gianniotis shortly after the second half began, prompting worries about his availability for both club and country in October.
Osimhen had propelled Galatasaray to a 2-0 lead within the first 28 minutes before sustaining the injury and being substituted. Despite his early goals, the team relinquished their lead and settled for a 3-3 draw.
In a conversation with the club’s media team, Buruk lamented the injury to Osimhen, who has made a strong start at the Istanbul giants. He voiced his concerns about the demanding match schedule and the risk of injuries due to the frequency of games.
The technical director said, “One of our biggest fears was injury. This happened in Osimhen. I said it last week. We play on Wednesday, and our next match is on Thursday. Someone assigns us a match for Saturday.
“The match planning means this. Let’s squeeze you; let’s injure you. Go to the next European match without missing. This is what they are saying directly.
“The rotations we made were due to the fear of injury. We played four matches in a row. Three days later, another match was added. We started well. We got to 3-0. If we had gone into the first half without conceding a goal, it might have been different for us. Our start to the second half was not good.”
He added, “Osimhen and Sallai were injured. The players who entered were not very effective except for Kaan. They did not give us what we wanted. We entered players who could affect the game. Afterwards, we could neither go to the opponent’s goal nor keep the ball. Although we did not give the opponent very clear positions, our defence started to run back from time to time. We took the game from the line we wanted on our own.”
If Victor Osimhen’s injury is anything to go by, he might miss Nigeria’s crucial double-header against Libya on October 11 and 15.