Etiosa Ighodaro’s latest chapter of injuries at Kaizer Chiefs has left him walking on a path of frustration, which has sunk him to a new low.
Brought in to provide solutions and goals up front at Chiefs, Ighodaro hasn’t done that just yet, like all other strikers at the club besides Flavio Silva.
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The Nigerian striker has only scored once in seven appearances, totalling 460 minutes.
Not the best return for a centre-forward who has been a starter in six of the seven games that he has played for the Soweto giants.
Worse is that after an injury setback delayed his debut earlier this season, he has now found himself back on the sidelines.
This time, it has been severe for the 24-year-old, who hasn’t played since December 3 last year, where was handed just over 15 minutes against his former club Chippa United.
Having not travelled to Egypt, where the men in Gold and Black will play Zamalek SC, it will push his period of absence to eight games.
The dent that this brings for the former Chippa United man is that the matches which provide opportunities for him to score are dropping.
Ighodaro hasn’t scored in the Betway Premiership for Amakhosi and now must make his statement loud in the 15 games remaining to avoid failure labels being attached to his forehead.
Chiefs are already out of the Nedbank Cup and the only other competition for him will be the Confederation Cup, but that will be provided they proceed to the quarterfinals.
What will concern Ighodaro is that he has never missed as many as eight matches since University of Pretoria provided him with his break during the 2021/22 season while on loan from Mamelodi Sundowns, where he never played.
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For all the years he was under contract at Mamelodi Sundowns, Ighodaro only played for the club’s feeder team, M Tigers, in the ABC Motsepe League.
