Henry Onyekuru has blasted his former coach at Anderlecht, Hein Vanhaezebrouck for neglecting him after recovering from injury.
Onyekuru poured out his frustration on Vanhaezebrouck following his failure to include the former Everton player in the squad in the latter part of the campaign following his recovery from injury.
The 22-year-old said leaving him out unused was responsible for him missing the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
“Anderlecht wanted me to have surgery but Everton refused and asked me to come back to England. I checked and one of the specialists told me that I could just undergo rehabilitation and that I would be better in a few months. I returned to Belgium to play, but the Nigerian coach had to call Anderlecht to ask them to allow me to play for only 15 minutes so that they could confirm that I was fit to play (for the World Cup 2018, note),” Onyekuru told The Athletic.
Read Also: Mikel Confirms Botafago Interest; Says ‘I’m Still Thinking About It’
“The coach was crazy. When we lost, it was our fault and when we won, he said it was thanks to him. I scored goals but he said I sucked and stuff like that.”
He said the Belgian club cost him his chance to play at the 2018 World Cup in Russia when they refused to play him again after he had recovered from the injury.
“Anderlecht was angry and also because my contract gave me the right to decide if I stayed or not (in Anderlecht, note). The new president was furious and said: who paid for this contract? They wanted me to stay another year, but I refused because of what they did to prevent me from going to the World Cup, “he added.
Onyekuru netted 10 goals in 28 appearances for Anderlecht on loan from Everton.
2 Comments
Old news
“… but the Nigerian coach had to call Anderlecht to ask them to allow me to play for only 15 minutes so that they could confirm that I was fit to play (for the World Cup 2018, note)….”
That’s a self confessed mediatory role played by the coach for one of his players at his club, in addition to the publicly acknowledged roles he played in the club careers of the likes of Osimhen (convincing Werder to send him out on loan if they wouldn’t use him), Uzoho (convincing Deportivo to loan him rather than leave him in the 3rd division with their B team), Sam Kalu (at Bordeaux), Balogun (at Brighton) and many others. In anyone surprised most of our players now play in top 5 leagues across Europe since after Rohr’s engagement…?
Later enemies of progress will claim Rohr hates onyekuru. The will say he’s a lazy coach who only sits in his parlour in Europe and receives $50k credit alert at the end of the month. LMAO.
Ignorance is a disease…!