Victor Osimhen could miss the next eight Napoli games, so Dries Mertens or Andrea Petagna will replace him, but neither striker are as prolific as the Nigeria international this term.
Osimhen suffered multiple facial fractures after a clash of heads with Inter defender Milan Skriniar on Saturday.
The 22-year-old will remain out of action for at least one month, missing the next eight games for Napoli.
According to Calciomercato.com, he could return on December 19 against Milan, but it’s still difficult to make predictions about the actual date of his comeback.
Osimhen is Napoli’s best scorer this season with nine goals in 14 appearances in all competitions and Luciano Spalletti has two options to replace the injured striker.
One is Dries Mertens and the other one Andrea Petagna. The former SPAL hitman replaced Osimhen at the Stadio Meazza yesterday, while Mertens came on 20 minutes later in place of Lorenzo Insigne.
Mertens scored one goal, but missed a huge opportunity in the stoppages, wasting a Zambo Anguissa cross and sending the ball over the bar from an excellent position.
The Belgium international underwent shoulder injury after the Euros in the summer and has only played nine games so far scoring two goals. However, he is the best scorer in the club’s history, with 137 goals in 369 games.
Petagna is Osimhen’s natural replacement on paper, but the former SPAL man has only scored one goal in 14 appearances so far.
Both he and Mertens must be up to the task of replacing Osimhen, not only over the next month but also in January when the striker will participate in the Africa Cup of Nations.
Huge loss but they do have the offensive firepower time for lozano step up
At the moment there’s not many Italian strikers that score consistently in seria a unless u are Immobile so they should stick with Mertens
Hope you a speedy recovery, warrior.