Super Eagles forward, Sadiq Umar was in action for 17minutes as Real Sociedad defeated Osasuna 2-0 in the Copa del Rey match on Wednesday. Umar was forced to leave Nigeria’s AFCON camp due to injury he picked up in pre-tournament friendly against Guinea on January 9. He was subsequently replaced by Paul Onuachu who was in action for three minutes in the 1-1 draw against Equatorial Guinea after coming in as late substitute for Alex Iwobi.
It was surprising to many that Umar who could not feature for the Eagles in AFCON bounced back from injury three days later to put up a good show for Sociedad sparking speculations that the Super Eagles doctor may have made wrong diagnosis of the player’s injury.
However, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said in a statement that the team followed due process in confirming Sadiq Umar’s injury, insisting that there was no error in the process.
Hours after the statement on Tuesday, January 16, Real Sociedad announced the squad list for their Copa del Rey match against Osasuna which took place on Wednesday night.
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Sadiq Umar started the match from the bench as he was introduced into the game in the 73rd minute. Before then, Real Sociedad were already a goal-up courtesy of a penalty kick from Mikel Oyarzabal.
Also, before he got into the game, Osasuna were a man down as Alejandro Catena was given a marching order in the 56th minute.
Sadiq Umar’s presence almost inspired two goals but Brais Méndez missed a penalty in the 97th minute before Mikel Merino sealed the 2-0 victory via a rebound from the penalty kick
Umar is expected to be in action once again on January 20, when Sociedad take on Celta Vigo in the Spanish La Liga. His countrymen will be in action later tonight (6 p.m.) against the hosts of the 2023 AFCON, Ivory Coast, in their second group-stage game.
