The latest Osimhen injury update is bad news for Galatasaray and Nigeria: Victor Osimhen’s return from knee surgery has been pushed back to five weeks, with the Super Eagles striker now set to miss the club’s next three matches — Samsunspor, Aston Villa and the Besiktas derby.
It is the second time in two days that the timeline has moved. On Saturday, Galatasaray confirmed the operation on the striker’s left knee had gone well, and the first reports put him out for around three weeks, with the Champions League trip to Aston Villa on 24 November as the target. By Sunday, the Turkish briefing had stretched that to three to four weeks and pointed to the Besiktas derby on Monday, 30 November instead. Now the recovery is expected to run to five weeks — and the derby itself is off the table.
Osimhen injury update: five weeks out, three games missed
The new forecast comes from prominent Turkish journalist Ali Naci Küçük, speaking on the 343 Digital YouTube channel on Monday. According to Küçük, a fragment that came loose in Osimhen’s knee is the reason the comeback is taking longer than first hoped.
“Osimhen underwent a successful operation. He will stay in Istanbul for a while to continue his treatment. A fragment has fallen out of his knee. Due to this fragment, his return may be delayed,” Küçük said. “His condition will be clearer in 10 days. Due to that detached fragment, it seems that Osimhen’s return to the field will take up to five weeks. Osimhen is not expected to play in the Samsunspor, Aston Villa, and Beşiktaş matches.”
Galatasaray have not announced an official return date of their own, and the five-week figure remains a reported projection rather than a club statement. But if it holds, Osimhen would not be back until around 12 December — five weeks after the operation on 7 November — which rules out the derby on 30 November, just 23 days after surgery, as well as the league trip to Samsunspor after the international break and the Champions League visit to Aston Villa.
That is a heavy blow for a Galatasaray side that went into the break top of the Super Lig without their main goalscorer. Osimhen has scored 10 goals and provided three assists in 11 appearances in all competitions this season, and his absence has already cost him the lead in the Super Lig scoring race: Gift Orban overtook Osimhen with his 10th league goal in Saturday’s 4-3 win over Amedspor, leaving the Galatasaray striker stuck on nine league goals.
Leao out too as Galatasaray’s attack thins
Osimhen is not the only Galatasaray attacker sidelined. Rafael Leão picked up a high-grade right hamstring injury in the same 4-3 win over Amedspor at the weekend, and Küçük reports that the Portuguese winger’s problem is the more serious of the two.
According to the same briefing, Galatasaray’s medical board has set Leão’s treatment at four weeks, followed by a training and strengthening programme, with the goal of having him back on the pitch within five to six weeks. His chances of playing in the Samsunspor, Aston Villa, Beşiktaş, Rizespor, Eyüpspor or AEK matches are, in Küçük’s words, “almost nil”.
Head coach Okan Buruk will therefore have to navigate the busiest stretch of Galatasaray’s season without his two most dangerous forwards — a run that includes a Champions League trip and the biggest derby in Turkish football.
What it means for Nigeria
For the Super Eagles, the new timeline changes nothing about the immediate picture — Osimhen will miss the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double-header against Tanzania. Nigeria host the Taifa Stars in Uyo on Friday, 13 November, before the return leg in Zanzibar on Tuesday, 17 November.
Head coach Eric Chelle has already named his 24-man squad without Osimhen, and the goalscoring burden now falls on the in-form Tolu Arokodare, Akor Adams and Taiwo Awoniyi. Nigeria sit second in Group L, three points behind Guinea-Bissau, and must win both games to keep their qualification hopes firmly in their own hands.
The hope for both club and country is that the best-case scenario is the one that plays out. If Osimhen’s knee settles as the doctors hope, a return in early December is in sight — and with it, a return to the Golden Boot race he was leading before the injury. If it does not, Galatasaray and Nigeria will be counting the cost well into December.
For more on the qualifiers, check today’s predictions.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (public domain, Fédération Guinéenne de Football) — collage by SportsBuddy
