The 24-year-old Super Eagle has missed six top-flight matches for the Bees since sustaining an ankle injury while on international duty
Brentford manager Thomas Frank has suggested midfielder Frank Onyeka may miss the remainder of the Premier League season owing to an injury he suffered while on international duty.
The 24-year-old Nigeria international last featured for the Bees in the 2-0 victory against Burnley on March 12 at Brentford Community Stadium.
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He then travelled to represent the Super Eagles in the 2022 World Cup qualifying play-off fixture against Ghana where they failed to make it to the finals to be staged in Qatar. It was during the return leg fixture in Abuja on March 29, when he picked up an ankle injury.
Since then, he has gone ahead to miss six straight matches – the 2-1 defeat against Leicester City, the 4-1 win against Chelsea, the 2-0 win against West Ham United, the 2-1 win against Watford, the 0-0 draw against Tottenham Hotspur and the recent 3-0 defeat against Manchester United.
Speaking ahead of the team’s home fixture against the Saints on Saturday, Frank has confirmed the Super Eagle could miss the rest of the season.
“It’s one game too early for Ethan Pinnock and Sergi Canos. We hope both of them could be involved for Everton. Other than that, it’s the same squad as available for Manchester United,” Frank told the club’s official website.
“Saman is out of the boot, in the gym, and running. Frank [Onyeka] is also training again with physios. It’s still going to be tough [for him to play again this season].”
Despite missing Onyeka, Frank has promised to end Brentford’s season on a high.
“We want to end as high as possible. I think we should have had more points; if you look at expected goals and all that, plus our own analysis of the games, we should have had more points,” Frank continued.
“I think we’ve learned and now we need to focus on the game tomorrow. We need to be aggressive, cool, and brave and bounce back with a top performance.”
During his last appearance against Burnley, Onyeka played for only one minute. In total, Onyeka, who joined Brentford at the start of the season from Midtjylland, has netted one Premier League goal in 2021-2022 from 20 appearances.
His only goal for the Bees came in the 3-3 draw against Newcastle United. Last season for Midtjylland, Onyeka made 27 Superliga appearances, scored three goals, and provided two assists.