Osaze out for rest of season

Osaze out for rest of season

Stoke City forward Osaze Odemwingie could be out for the rest of the season amid fears he has seriously damaged his cruciate knee ligament, according to reports on Monday.

The 33-year-old Super Eagles player fell down with nobody around him at Manchester City on Saturday and was stretchered off the pitch.

Stoke boss Mark Hughes said after guiding his side to a 1-0 victory over the Premier League champions that the injury was nothing serious.

The club are now looking at possibility of having Oussama Assaidi on loan as his replacement, the Stoke Sentinel reported.

Stoke had tried to buy the Liverpool winger earlier this summer following his successful loan stint at Stoke last season.

His high personal demands stalled the deal, however, and it eventually fell through when Stoke took Victor Moses on loan from Chelsea instead.

But now Assaidi’s name is back on a hastily-assembled hit list on transfer deadline day.

Tottenham’s Aaron Lennon is another possibility, but his former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp reportedly wants him at QPR.

Meanwhile, Hull City winger Sone Aluko has expressed his desire to join the Super Eagles ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations 2015 qualifiers against Congo and South Africa, africanfootball.com reports.

Aluko, who debuted for Nigeria in a friendly with Republic of Ireland on May 29, 2009, said he was focused on playing for Nigeria.

“National team duty bound. Wheels up. Looking forward to joining up with the team,” Aluko tweeted.

The left-sided winger has played for England U16s, U17s,U18s and U19s before he switched allegiance to Nigeria and played for the country’s U20s and the Eagles.