Victor Osimhen fractured his right forearm in Galatasaray’s Champions League exit at Anfield, played on until halftime in visible pain, and has now returned to Nigeria while a surgery decision awaits.
Victor Osimhen is back in Lagos, arm in a cast, nursing a fracture and a Champions League elimination that went from bad to catastrophic inside ten minutes. The Galatasaray striker returned to Nigeria this week following the injury he sustained on March 18 during the second leg of the club’s round of 16 tie against Liverpool, a night that ended with a 4-0 defeat and a 4-1 aggregate exit from the competition.
The injury happened in the seventh minute at Anfield. Osimhen went down after a collision with Liverpool centre-back Ibrahima Konate, fractured his right forearm in the process, and then did something that tells you everything about his character and his stubbornness: he stayed on the pitch. Despite the pain and a swelling that was visible enough for broadcasters to comment on it, he played out the entire first half before Galatasaray coach Okan Buruk finally took him off at the interval, replacing him with Leroy Sane.
The half-time substitution removed what was already a diminished presence, but it removed it nonetheless. Liverpool, who had been 1-0 down from the first leg in Istanbul, won the tie emphatically. Dominik Szoboszlai, Hugo Ekitike, Ryan Gravenberch, and Mohamed Salah all scored in a performance that sent the Turkish champions home and Liverpool into the quarter-finals.
Slot Was Honest About the Turning Point
Liverpool manager Arne Slot did not deflect when asked about the role Osimhen’s injury played in the result. “Osimhen is an incredible player for them,” he told reporters after the match. “It’s not nice to see any player get injured, but he’s been very influential on Galatasaray’s performance. It was a difficult task for us when we played them in their stadium, largely because of their fans. It is a huge advantage for us to get ahead without conceding when facing that kind of pressure.”
Slot also recalled Osimhen’s influence across both legs, including the assist for Mario Lemina’s first-leg winner at RAMS Park and a goal the Nigerian had scored against Liverpool in the group stage earlier in the season. The Liverpool coach knew what he had been spared from dealing with at full capacity.
Drama Before the Damage Was Done
The collision that caused the fracture sparked one of the more heated moments of a tense evening. Liverpool’s players, suspecting Osimhen of time-wasting as he remained on the ground, moved to haul him to his feet. Osimhen reacted furiously and came close to a physical altercation with Szoboszlai before Galatasaray’s Mario Lemina stepped in to calm things down. It was a chaotic few minutes that set the tone for an ugly night for the visiting side.
Konate’s involvement in the collision later sparked a separate and uglier story away from the pitch, with the French defender targeted with racist abuse on social media in the aftermath of the game. Liverpool released a statement condemning the attacks in the strongest possible terms, and the Premier League backed the club’s position. None of that is Konate’s doing, and the abuse directed at him has rightly been the focus of significant criticism from across the football world.
What the Injury Means for Osimhen
Galatasaray confirmed after the match that Osimhen had fractured his right forearm. His arm was placed in a cast and he is now waiting for the swelling to subside before a final decision is made on whether surgery will be necessary. If it is, a six-week absence becomes the working estimate, a timeline that could cost him several significant matches for the Turkish club.
The fixtures in danger include league games against Trabzonspor, Kocaelispor, and Gençlerbirliği, with the bigger concern being a derby clash against Fenerbahçe on April 26. Galatasaray are fighting for the Super Lig title and every game from here carries weight. The absence of a player who has contributed directly to 26 goals this season — 19 scored, seven assisted — is not something a squad absorbs easily.
At international level, the injury has already cost him. Osimhen was left out of Eric Chelle’s squad for the Super Eagles’ friendlies against Iran and Jordan this month. The trip to Nigeria was already planned before the injury, so the visit home is not purely a medical decision. But it is a working recovery, not a holiday, and the surgery question will determine what kind of timeline he faces before returning to club action. Nigerian fans wanting to track the latest on Osimhen’s comeback and back the Super Eagles through the current Bet9ja promotion can find the Bet9ja YOHAIG promo code and full details here.
📌 Did You Know?
- Osimhen’s goal against Liverpool in the group stage earlier this season made him the first Nigerian player to score against an English top-flight club in the Champions League knockout rounds since John Obi Mikel’s era at Chelsea.
- Mohamed Salah’s goal in the 62nd minute of the Anfield second leg made him the first African player in history to reach 50 Champions League goals, a milestone that arrived on the same night Osimhen was stretchered out of the European competition.
- Galatasaray goalkeeper Ugurcan Cakir saved a Salah penalty in first-half stoppage time during the same match, one of three outstanding saves in the first 45 minutes that kept the score to 1-0 before the second-half collapse.
- Osimhen’s season tally of 19 goals and 7 assists in all competitions makes him the highest-scoring African striker in European club football this season ahead of the final two months of the campaign.
- Leroy Sane, the player who replaced Osimhen at halftime in the Anfield second leg, joined Galatasaray on a free transfer from Bayern Munich in the summer of 2025, making his signing one of the most high-profile arrivals in Turkish football in years.
- Osimhen had previously suffered a facial fracture in November 2021 during a Serie A match for Napoli against Inter Milan, an injury that required surgery and saw him play several matches in a custom protective mask for weeks after his return.
- The Fenerbahçe vs Galatasaray derby on April 26 is known as the Kıtalararası Derbi or Intercontinental Derby, one of the most-watched club football matches in the world by television audience, frequently drawing over 500 million viewers globally when broadcast figures are aggregated.
