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Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk says Victor Osimhen is winning his race to be involved next Tuesday as the Turkish side hosts Liverpool in the Champions League.
Osimhen has not played for Galatasaray since he scored against Rizespor at the end of August after he picked up an injury during the September international break while representing Nigeria in its game against Rwanda.
Galatasaray has played three times since then — against Eyupspor and Konyaspor domestically, and a 5-1 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt in Europe — but Osimhen has been missing. The Super Lig side has a star-studded attack regardless, including Leroy Sane and Mauro Icardi, but would like its best number nine to be available too.
Buruk told reporters: "He took part in part of the training session. He has minor aches and pains. But if he can tolerate them and play, we hope he'll be with the team in our next match."
Buruk went on to say that Osimhen is prepared to put his body on the line against Liverpool, which is a huge game anyway, but not least in the context of the heavy defeat on matchday one.
"We'll try him out in training," Buruk added. "He played for 10 minutes yesterday. His pain is still there.
"We expect him to be in the squad for the Alanyaspor match [this weekend]. We expect him to be on the pitch for the Liverpool match."
Liverpool opened its Champions League campaign with a 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid, with Virgil van Dijk powering home a late winner from Dominik Szoboszlai's corner.
"We kept pushing for the 3-1," Van Dijk said after that match. "We concede the equalizer, massively deflected. It was not great. We found a way again. We were dangerous in our set-pieces anyway, they were pretty aggressive I must say. I'm glad I got the winner.
"They're a team that never gives up, they have quality players that can punish you if you're not there in a split second, if you're a little bit too late and they punished us before the break and after the break we try to go for the 3-1.
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"They get a bit of confidence from that as well. But we have to keep going and show the resilience we've been showing for many years and it was another great European night here again."
In last season's competition, teams needed 12 points to get through to the knockout phase (Manchester City, Sporting CP and Club Brugge actually qualified on 11, edging out Dinamo Zagreb on goal difference).
That means a win would take Liverpool halfway there with six matches more to play.
Liverpool.com says: Galatasaray away is going to be an intense atmosphere and there is a tricky game at Crystal Palace to get out of the way first. The big weeks just keep coming for the Reds, and it's an exciting period.
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