Oumar Solet injury: what happened against Lazio, recovery time and when he could return
Off in the first half with a thigh muscle problem, replaced by Kabasele. The scans have not been done yet: here is what is confirmed, what is not, and why Napoli are watching.
Udinese lost Oumar Solet in the first half of Monday's game against Lazio, which finished 1-2 to the visitors. He is the most searched name in Italy tonight, and the question is a single one: how long will he be out.
The honest answer, right now, is that nobody knows yet. What is confirmed, though, can be set out in order.
What happened
Solet signalled to the bench on 37 minutes and came off straight after. He had felt pain in his thigh while carrying the ball forward, losing possession, and asked to be taken off shortly after. Christian Kabasele replaced him.
It is a thigh muscle problem. Accounts differ on the exact muscle and on which leg, so we are not putting a version in print: the scan will settle it.
A double blow
It was not the only forced change. Jakub Piotrowski had already gone off around the quarter-hour mark. Two enforced substitutions inside the first half left the manager with one slot for the rest of the game.
There is no official version of why Piotrowski came off, and until one arrives we would rather not assign him one.
Recovery time: what is known and what is not
Solet will undergo instrumental examinations, normally carried out the day after the match. Before those, any figure is an estimate, not a diagnosis.
As we write, the club has published nothing on his condition: the official site carries the match report and the travel information for San Siro, nothing on the defender. Anyone circulating precise recovery times is doing so without the report.
There is a yardstick, though. This is not his first muscle problem in Italy: on an earlier occasion, a strain to the pectineus muscle of the adductor, the club itself said he would be available again in a couple of weeks. That is a precedent, not a forecast: it gives the usual order of magnitude for this kind of problem, which runs from a few days to over a month depending on the grade.
When he could return: the games in play
The fixture list shows what is coming, and it does not leave much room.
Udinese's next match is Monday 14 September at 20:45 at San Siro against Inter Milan, six days after the injury. Then, on Saturday 19 September at 15:00, Cagliari visit the Friuli, eleven days after.
There is nothing yet on which to judge whether he makes either: it depends on the grade of the injury, and the scan decides that.
Why Napoli are watching
There is a reason Solet's name often appears next to Napoli, and it is not the fixture list: the two clubs do not meet any time soon.
It is the transfer market. Napoli tracked the French defender for months, particularly while looking to strengthen at the back, and Udinese value him at at least twenty-five million. Solet himself has said there had already been contact with Napoli during his Salzburg days, when the move did not happen.
That is why a muscle problem in early September is watched closely well beyond Udine: it affects the availability of a player already on more than one big club's list.
We will update here
As soon as the scan results and any club statement arrive, this article is updated with the diagnosis and the real timeline. We would rather be a few hours late with a real figure than immediate with a guess.
Match-by-match analysis, with predicted lineups and updated absentees, is on the Serie A page. The record of our settled calls is in the results history.
