Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen recently shared chilling details of the life-threatening head injury that has left him needing to wear a mask for the rest of his professional career, Footynaija.com reports.
The incident occurred during a Serie A clash between Napoli and Inter Milan at the San Siro back in 2021. Osimhen was contesting an aerial ball with Inter’s Milan Skriniar when both players had a nasty clash of heads in the Nerazzurri box.
The unfortunate collision left Osimhen totally floored, with the Nigeria international suffering fractures to his cheekbones as well as his eye socket.
Recounting the “near-death” experience in a recent interview with top Nigerian media personality Daddy Freeze, the prolific hitman revealed some harrowing details of that incident as well as the life-long implications of that injury.
Victor Osimhen’s account of his horror head injury
“In 2021, we’re having a game against Inter Milan in San Siro Stadium. My teammate crossed the ball for me, so I wanted to head the ball. And the guy was bringing his head, and then his head hit my face, and all the bones got broken. So actually, it was all funny, but you know, this type of joke is that if I slap you, you’ll see a star. I was sitting blankly.
“If you watch the replay, I raised my hand until their goalkeeper touched me. That was when I knew I was alive. It was a near-death experience. So I stood up, after about 10 minutes on the floor, and went directly to the hospital. I even asked our team doctor when I would play again. I never knew the injury was that bad. And then the doctors came, they did an X-ray, just an X-ray, not even an MRI.
“They did an X-ray, and the doctor came and said, from what he saw in the X-ray, I have to do surgery as quickly as possible. I said I’m not doing surgery, that they can’t cut my face. He said, No, they will go through my jaw. I can’t eat here for the rest of my life. So they went through my jaw, brought out the fragments, took everything out, then saw everything. So here is an iron, one here, and the other one is here. I have iron in my face.
“There are some injuries that you just take out and play normally when they’re done. But mine is, I don’t think there are worse injuries in football, but mine also is, I could lose my eyes. It was so bad, and that’s the reason why I put on the mask. So, I can jump, go head to head. If anyone hits me, they get injured because it’s like a, it’s powerful.”
Despite facing such a horrible setback, Osimhen bounced back superbly and has since established himself as one of the most potent striking talents in world football.