Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Petrojet will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Petrojet is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad17 May 2027
Ahmed Yassin 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Petrojet know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Petrojet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Petrojet have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Petrojet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Yassin 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.
Mohamed Ali Okasha 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.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Petrojet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ahmed Yassin 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Petrojet are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Something was said to Adham Hamed and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 49 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Petrojet is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Ahmed Yassin 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.
Karim El Deeb 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.
Something was said to Omar Moawad and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 57 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ahmed Yassin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Petrojet, and 10 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Mohamed Raafat is 20, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Fashion Sakala signs something — a contract at Petrojet or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Mohamed Ali Okasha has written the date down.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Petrojet, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Moses Twum
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Petrojet will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Petrojet have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Petrojet they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Words at Petrojet training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Yassin 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.
Karim El Deeb 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Fashion Sakala was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.61. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ahmed Yassin 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 Carlão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Trezeguet Marwan to a room that had heard them before.
10 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
Petrojet are taken apart by Al Gaish — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Ahmed Yassin 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Carlão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.09 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Karim El Deeb
BoardroomNobody left the Petrojet dressing room in a hurry