Goalkeeper Reda Tagnaouti underwent on March 29 a successful operation on his right knee, which he had injured during his last training session with the Moroccan national team.
“Alhamdulillah,” (praise be to Allah) Tagnouti captioned an Instagram post, for having come through the operation well.
However, the goalkeeper’s operation will keep him off the pitch for six weeks or more, according to the national team’s doctor Abderrazak Hifti.
His absence from his club, Wydad, will also deprive the iconic Casablanca-based team of the international goalkeeper until the end of this season, which means that he will not be able to participate in the Botola (the top-tier Moroccan football league) or in the Throne Cup tournament.
For the rest of the current season, the club will have to rely on one of its other three goalkeepers, namely Yanis Henin, Aïssa Sioudi, or Youssef El Motie.
April 1 will witness a CAF Champions League match between Wydad and Algeria’s JS Kabylie. The match is the last of the group stages for Wydad, and the Moroccan club has to finish first in its group to avoid playing against tougher teams in the quarter-finals of the continental tournament.
If Tagnaouti’s recovery goes as planned, the goalkeeper is set to be back in action by the beginning of the next Botola season. In a Facebook post, Tagnaouti expressed his determination to come back soon, and stronger. He wrote: “Thank you for your messages full of positive energy; they reinforce my determination to return to the stadiums as soon as possible.”
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