Galatasaray reporter Ali Naci Küçük has revealed that striker Victor Osimhen was demoralized over comments made about him in Africa.
Recently, reports were coming from Africa claiming that Osimhen refused to play for Nigeria’s Super Eagles against South Africa in the World Cup qualifier to feature for Galatasaray in their Champions League tie against Frankfurt.
The reports came after Osimhen picked up an ankle ligament injury against Rwanda in an earlier World Cup qualifier.
The 26-year-old returned to Galatasaray for treatment and didn’t travel with the Super Eagles for the South Africa game, which ended in a 1-1 draw.
Speaking about Osimhen’s latest condition on the Futbol Arena YouTube channel, Naci Küçük said, as quoted by Habersarikirmizi: “The comments made in Africa, ‘He ran away from the national team for the Champions League!’, brought Osimhen’s morale down.
“He became demoralized. He became very fixated on those comments. In a sense, he said, ‘If I play, I will prove them right. There will be a perception that I ran away.’
“He wanted to prevent that. That is the situation. This is normal. On the one hand, it was good. Because he was going to play against Frankfurt with no training.
“He was going to play with an injection. God forbid, it would have been a bigger risk. Despite the loss, it was good that Osimhen didn’t play.”
