Injured Everton forward faces tough road to World Cup

With Gylfi Sigurdsson already ailing, Kevin Mirallas wildly out of form, and Oumar Niasse in and out of the Senegal squad, Everton are in danger of sending precious few representatives to this summer’s World Cup in Russia.

To make matters worse, it appears that on-loan forward Henry Onyekuru is battling a race to get fit in time to feature for Nigeria.

Everton loanee Henry Onyekuru is still in danger of missing the 2018 World Cup.

La Dernière Heure says Anderlecht tested the knee of the Nigeria international yesterday and the earliest possibility of the striker resuming full training with the first team is two weeks.

Even if Onyekuru returned to match fitness immediately in two weeks - spoiler, he won’t - it would still only leave him with a handful of matches remaining to convince the Nigerian manager he’s worthy of a spot on the plane to Russia.

Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

Furthermore, Nigeria are fairly loaded in attack. Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo, Alex Iwobi, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Victor Moses are all experienced Premier League players.

Onyekuru might not make it even if fit, and if there are any lingering health questions, does it make sense to take that risk with the depth that exists? Probably not.

Get well soon, Henry - we’ll see you back at Finch Farm in preseason.