When Senegal manager Aliou Cissé announced that he would be calling up Nottingham Forest’s Moussa Niakhaté for the upcoming international break, a few eyebrows were raised.
This wasn’t because the player doesn’t deserve it, but largely due to the fact that he has been injured since the second game week of the season with no date set for his return.
This meant there was hope the player could be heading for a swift return to Steve Cooper’s team, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
We say this because Press Afrik, who were covering Senegal’s first training session on Tuesday, explained that despite the player travelling to Orléans in France, he won’t be taking part in either of the two friendlies against Bolivia and Iran.
This suggests the medical staff of the Senegal national team simply wanted to take a closer look at the Nottingham Forest player before ruling him out.
The Tricky Trees’ summer signing shared his joy at being called up on social media when it was announced, but it appears he always knew he was never going to feature during the current international break.
All this has done is made it clear he will be considered by Cissé going forward, and if he returns in time, the Nottingham Forest defender could even squeeze himself in his country’s World Cup squad.
We’ll have to wait and see.
