Galatasaray Technical Director Okan Buruk has expressed concern over the injury to Victor Osimhen as the striker races to regain fitness for the club’s upcoming matches.
The 25-year-old collided with Kasimpasa goalkeeper Andreas Gianniotis shortly after the second half began, signaling for a substitution and raising doubts about his availability for both club and country in the coming days.
Osimhen had given Galatasaray a 2-0 lead within the first 28 minutes before being substituted. He watched the remainder of the match from the bench as the team squandered their healthy advantage, ultimately drawing 3-3.
The Napoli loanee opened the scoring in the 20th minute with a straightforward finish from an Abdulkerim Bardakcı cross, then doubled his tally just eight minutes later.
Speaking with the club’s media team, Buruk lamented the injury to a player who has made an immediate impact at the Istanbul giants.
He stated, “One of our biggest fears was injury, and this happened with Osimhen. I mentioned it last week. We play on Wednesday, and our next match is on Thursday. Someone schedules us for a match on Saturday. The planning suggests this: Let’s push you; let’s risk injury. Go to the next European match without rest. This is what they are implying. The rotations we made were due to the fear of injury. We played four matches in a row, and three days later, another match was added. We started well and went 3-0 up. If we had entered the first half without conceding, it might have been different for us. Our start to the second half was not good.”
“Osimhen and Sallai were injured. The players who came on were not very effective, except for Kaan. They did not deliver what we needed. We brought on players who could influence the game, but we could neither advance toward the opponent’s goal nor retain possession. Although we did not concede many clear chances to the opponent, our defense began to retreat at times. We lost control of the game.”
While Osimhen tried to downplay injury concerns after the match, his potential absence from the critical double-header against Libya on October 11 and 15 could pose a significant setback for Nigeria’s qualification hopes.
Osimhen has scored 22 goals in 35 appearances for Nigeria, and interim coach Austin Eguavoen is eager to have him lead the attack against the North Africans.
