Osimhen in line for 2022 AFCON, World Cup playoffs, hits training ground after ‘miraculous recovery’

Nigeria international, Victor Oshimhen is now inline to feature for the country in continental engagements he was earlier ruled of, following his surprise return to training barely three weeks after undergoing a face surgery over injury sustained during a Serie A league match, last month.

Osimhen was ruled out of action by club and doctors for three or 90 days over the serious injury which left him with a disfigured face from broken bones in that part of the body.

However, the 24-year old Edo-born striker, Wednesday, took to his Instagram handle after a video was released showing him training.

Oshimhen expressed delight to returning to training and hopefully to full match duties for his club side SSC Napoli.

“Thankful to God Almighty, I sincerely appreciate those who reached out to me, God bless you and yours. No time to dwell on past transgressions. Looking forward to the greater things ahead. God Is the greatest. We move!”

Oshimhen’s injury has pushed Napoli down the pecking order in the Italian Serie A and also put Nigerian fans on knife edge regarding his potential absence from the AFCON 2022 tourney in Cameroun, as well as potentially for the crucial 2022 World Cup Africa playoffs.

Doctors say he will most likely play with a face protective mask going forward.

Surgeon who performed surgery on Nigerian striker, Osimhen, said on November 24, the player looked like he had been run over.

The Nigerian striker was seriously affected in a clash with Milan Skriniar on Sunday, November 21, in Napoli’s defeat at Inter Milan.

Osimhen came out in the 55th minute of the game against Inter (3-2 loss), after a big aerial shock with Milan defender Milan Skriniar.

The Nigerian striker from Naples suffered ‘multiple displacements of the orbit of the eye and the left cheekbone,’ announced the Neapolitan club after the meeting.

“There were a total of twenty fractures” revealed to Calciomercato the surgeon who operated on him on Tuesday. It’s as if he had passed under a grinder. The intervention lasted 3h:30. The eye was out of its socket. We have to make him a custom mask. “

The striker was then estimated to be out of action for around 90 days, according to Napoli.

Surgeon Gianpaolo Tartaro revealed that Osimhen got his face badly crushed but that the surgery on the face was successful.

Tartaro said the injury was not a simple cheekbone fracture but that it also affected several bones of the player’s face.

The Nigeria international walked off the pitch with a swollen cheekbone and black eye and was rushed to the hospital afterwards.

A surgery was performed on the face, according to a statement by Napoli, and a recovery time of three months was set by the club.

“Osimhen injury was not a simple cheekbone fracture but also affected several bones of the face,” said the doctor.

“It was not a shock trauma, but compression: the kinetic force generated by the crushing of Osimhen’s face against Skriniar’s created devastating damage.

“It is still too early to talk about recovery times because the surgery was really complex: the conditions of the player’s face were very bad but I guarantee that the surgery was perfectly successful,” the surgeon added.