Galatasaray have confirmed Victor Osimhen will undergo knee surgery on Saturday after the striker strained his left knee in Tuesday's Champions League win over VfB Stuttgart. The club confirmed in an official statement on Friday, 6 November, that MRI scans had found a loose body in the joint, and that the 27-year-old will have an arthroscopic operation at Maslak Acıbadem Hospital in Istanbul, carried out by club doctor Yener İnce. Osimhen has been removed from the squad for Saturday's Süper Lig match against Amed S.F. Galatasaray gave no return date.
The problem surfaced in Tuesday's 2-0 Champions League win over Stuttgart at RAMS Park. Osimhen played the full 90 minutes without scoring, as Aleksey Batrakov struck twice in quick succession to settle the game, and there was no obvious moment when the striker went down. The injury only emerged afterwards, when the club sent him for further tests and the scans revealed the loose body in his left knee. Follow the score, lineups and match details on the Galatasaray vs VfB Stuttgart match page.
Galatasaray's official statement, published on the club's official channels on Friday, was short and specific. The club said Osimhen had sustained a strain in his left knee during the Champions League match against VfB Stuttgart, and that MRI examinations had detected a loose body. The statement added that an arthroscopic knee surgery will be performed on Saturday at Maslak Acıbadem Hospital by club doctor Yener İnce, and that, for that reason, the player has been removed from the squad for Saturday's match against Amed S.F.
That wording matters for supporters searching for a return date: there is, as things stand, no confirmed timeline for Osimhen's return. The club has said nothing about how long he will be out, and has only promised further information after the operation. Any date circulating online that is not backed by a further official statement from Galatasaray should be treated as unconfirmed.
The timing is a blow for the Turkish champions. Osimhen has been their leading striker this season, with 10 goals in 11 appearances in all competitions, and he will now miss Saturday's league match against Amed S.F. at a point when Galatasaray are trying to keep their momentum going after the European win over Stuttgart. It is also the second injury layoff of his season: he missed 33 days of action in September after suffering a right adductor injury against İstanbul Başakşehir, and only returned to full fitness in October. How the club cover the absence is a question for the team sheet, but the attack will have to manage without its main goalscorer for now.
The bigger consequence may fall on Nigeria. The Super Eagles face Tanzania in a 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double-header — at home in Uyo on Friday, 13 November, and away in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday, 17 November — and the timing of the surgery means Osimhen is set to miss both fixtures. Nigeria have taken only three points from their first two games in Group L and sit behind Guinea-Bissau on six, so the two Tanzania games are close to must-win, and losing the team's leading striker for them is a serious setback for head coach Eric Chelle. Until Galatasaray give a recovery timeline after Saturday's operation, there is no confirmed date for when Osimhen will be available again for either club or country.
The next checkpoint is the operation itself, scheduled for Saturday at Maslak Acıbadem Hospital. Galatasaray are expected to give a further update once the surgery is complete, and only then will there be any reliable sense of how long the recovery will take. The confirmed facts are the left knee strain, the loose body found by MRI, the surgery on Saturday, the missed match against Amed S.F. and the absence of an official return date. ScorePulse will update this story when Galatasaray give their next official assessment of Osimhen's injury.
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