Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Warri Wolves will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ekene Olisema and Warri Wolves agree another 2 years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.81 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ebere Iheanacho will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Warri Wolves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chisom Orji. 1‑0 against Bendel Insurance, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Feb 2035
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okiemute Akporiaye 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Warri Wolves will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Warri Wolves is running low.
Squad25 Dec 2034
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okiemute Akporiaye 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Warri Wolves lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Terem Ebuehi has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
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.
Chidera Simon 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.
Abubakar Isyaku 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.
Squad9 Oct 2034
Olisa Collins 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Warri Wolves told Oladoye Ezekiel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okiemute Akporiaye 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
The terraces31 Jul 2034
The mood at Warri Wolves has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Osimhen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Warri Wolves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Warri Wolves they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.24 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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 Warri Wolves, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings12 Jun 2034
Ahmad Lamido was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.33. 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.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okiemute Akporiaye 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Warri Wolves told Bassey Bassey something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Godstime Edewor will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Warri Wolves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Warri Wolves this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Warri Wolves and Remo Stars, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad1 May 2034
Words at Warri Wolves training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Okiemute Akporiaye 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.
Terem Onyekuru 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.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Osimhen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Warri Wolves the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Okiemute Akporiaye 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.
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.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
35 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Warri Wolves lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Warri Wolves is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Warri Wolves, and it is not being withdrawn.
The phone has started ringing about Michael Osimhen again, and this time the name on the line is Shooting Stars. Warri Wolves are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.