The words a physio says slowly. 69 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Smouha, and it is not being withdrawn.
Khaled El Ghandour was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Smouha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amr El Sisi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“I did not go to Rangers International to sit and watch. I want to come back to Smouha and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 16 matches say the rest.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Smouha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is not rotation. Koné Mohamed has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Smouha is pretending otherwise.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Words at Smouha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amr El Sisi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 1‑0 win over Ghazl El Mahalla, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ahmed Warda on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Smouha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Smouha, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Petrojet for Anisse Saidi was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
$670.0K on the table at Petrojet. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Smouha they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$70.0K was the most the club would pay and Al Gaish were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Smouha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Sackey is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Smouha asked and Al Gaish said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Smouha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Smouha, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Smouha they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Smouha have gone to Petrojet with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Sackey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Smouha will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
64 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Smouha lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Mohamed Dabash and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Amr El Sisi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ahmed Warda left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Amr El Sisi's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Eyad Tamer is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Smouha have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Smouha have gone to Ghazl El Mahalla with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Mohamed Hassan is a Smouha player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Amr El Sisi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Isaac Sackey was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ahmed Mayhoub trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Smouha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Smouha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Isaac Sackey is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Smouha, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Smouha will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Smouha, another week without a signature from Samad Popoola.