Galatasaray have pushed back Victor Osimhen’s return target to the Osimhen Besiktas derby on 30 November, with the Turkish champions’ medical team putting the Super Eagles striker out for three to four weeks after knee surgery — and a leading specialist warning that, in the worst case, the layoff could stretch to six months.
The new timeline is the latest update on the striker’s recovery since he went under the knife on Saturday, and it moves the goalposts from the earlier target of the Champions League trip to Aston Villa on 24 November. For Galatasaray, who went into the international break top of the Super Lig without their main goalscorer, and for Nigeria, who must face Tanzania without him, the next three weeks will decide how costly this injury really is.
Osimhen Besiktas derby: the new target date
Osimhen underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Saturday at Maslak Acibadem Hospital in Istanbul, performed by Galatasaray club doctor Yener Ince. An MRI scan had revealed a loose body in the joint after the striker suffered a strain during the Champions League win over VfB Stuttgart, and the operation removed the fragment.
According to the latest Turkish briefing, Galatasaray’s medical team expect the 27-year-old to be away from the pitches for approximately three to four weeks, and the club have set the Istanbul derby against Besiktas on Monday, 30 November at Tupras Stadium as the target for his return. No negative additional findings were encountered during the operation, which the club view as a positive sign.
That is a week later than the first reports after the surgery, which put the recovery at around three weeks and pointed to the Aston Villa game on 24 November. The 24 November date now looks optimistic: it falls just 17 days after the operation, while the new three-to-four-week window runs to between 28 November and 5 December. The Besiktas derby, 23 days after surgery, sits inside that window — but only just.
Either way, Osimhen will miss Galatasaray’s next league fixture against Samsunspor, having already sat out Saturday’s 4-3 win over Amedspor. He 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 the same 4-3 game at RAMS Park, leaving the Galatasaray striker stuck on nine league goals.
Specialist warns of six-month worst case
The cautious note comes from Prof. Dr. Mehmet Erbil, an orthopaedics, traumatology and sports injuries specialist, who assessed the injury in the Turkish press.
“In such a situation, a player can return to the pitches after 3 weeks in the best-case scenario. In the second possibility, if there is chronic edema, it can extend up to 6 months,” Erbil said. “The fact that there is no large fragment in Osimhen and that he was able to continue playing on the field is positive news.”
That is a general medical assessment of this type of knee problem, not a diagnosis of Osimhen’s knee, and Galatasaray have given no such prognosis — the club’s own position remains that the striker will be assessed daily. But it underlines why head coach Okan Buruk refused to name a date at the weekend, insisting there is “no set timeline” and that the club will monitor the striker “day by day”.
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, the Besiktas derby on 30 November 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
