Nigeria left back Elderson Echiejile limped out of his side, Sivasspor’s 0-2 home loss to Kayserispor in a Turkish Super Lig game on Saturday.
Echiejile was one of three Sivasspor players who were injured in the first half of the Week 4 match, a situation that culminated in the team’s first home loss of the season.
Kayserispor scored once in each half through Umut Bulut and Nikola Stojiljkovic to condemn Samet Aybaba’s men to their third league defeat in four matches.
Echiejile who had played the entire duration in Sivasspor’s first three games struggled to finish the first half despite copping an injury before he was replaced at the start of the second with Galip Guzel.
“Our expectations were not that way,” began Aybaba in his post-match press conference .
“We concentrated a lot before 3 of our players got injured in the first 45 minutes.”
“We could not use our preferences from the bench, it was a bad day for the team but we have to look at team integrity instead of criticizing individual players,” he told the club’s official website.
The manager added that they will assess the extent of the injured players’ injuries and continue to monitor the situation ahead of their next league game against Osmanlispor next Sunday.
Echiejile’s situation will also interest Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr who has profound faith in the former AS Monaco left back ahead of Nigeria’s World Cup qualifier against Zambia next month.
