We’ve already played the “Where’s Henry Onyekuru?” game once before, back when he was still at Eupen and trying to force a move to Celtic, which ended up with him returning to the club, apologising and finishing the season strongly enough to earn himself a move to Everton.
Now with the Toffees, the forward spent the season on loan at Anderlecht to try and get into the Nigeria squad in order to fulfil the criteria for a work permit.
Unfortunately for the 20-year-old, a knee injury just after Christmas sidelined him for the second half of the season until very recently.
The youngster featured for the club’s reserves a few weeks back without any issues, and there was still hope he could play a couple of games for the first-team before the campaign came to an end, but it wasn’t to be.
Ultimately, this cost him his World Cup spot, and while Everton and Anderlecht are said to have an agreement for a second season on loan, Onyekuru isn’t interested, hugely resentful at how the Belgian side handled the situation.
Following German reports on Thursday claiming the forward was in talks with Borussia Mönchengladbach, Friday morning saw an article from Het Nieuwsblad appear explaining the Toffees’ loanee had missed training.
The “official” report was he had gastroenteritis, but the Belgian newspaper believed it to be more ‘transfer fever’, which many players seem to get at this time of the year.
They should really create a vaccine for that.
Either way, this news has since been confirmed by Anderlecht’s manager Hein Vanhaezebrouck, who told the press with a smile, relayed by HLN: “He is sick. Is he really sick? (deadpan) He is sick.”
The Belgian coach defended his decision to not use the Nigerian in the last few games because of his ‘fear of duels’, but Onyekuru isn’t buying that one bit, so he’s gone missing, again.
We look forward to “Where’s Henry Onyekuru? Vol. 2: German Holiday”.
