Kanu undergoes successful surgery on lingering injury

Super Falcons and Racing Louisville FC, Uchenna Kanu, has announced having successful surgery to finally shake off an injury she has been playing with for some time, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The 27-year-old shared the cheering news in a statement on her Instagram page on Wednesday, buttressing the revelation with the picture above, which shows her smiling broadly on the hospital bed.

“Procedure successful! God is the greatest. Now, let’s recover. Last slide: my AT won’t stop cracking me up,” stated the vastly travelled player with 20 goals in 31 outings with the Super Falcons after excelling at the U-17 and U-20 levels for Nigeria.

Kanu had last week, in a video, announced her decision to finally allow the leg to fall under the doctor’s scalpel, promising to race through the recovery process and urging her fans to pray for her.

She was sorely missed by Racing Louisville FC during Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to Bay FC at PayPal Park, San Jose, California, where Nigerian teammate Asisat Oshoala’s second-half goal made the difference.

Reflecting on the loss that nudged Racing into 11th place and four points off the postseason cutline ahead of another critical battle next Saturday at home against ninth-place Angel City, their defender Abby Erceg bemoaned their inability to score goal in the absence of Kanu.

She said, “But again, we’re failing to score goals in games, and I think we need to score goals and put teams away early. I think the opportunities were there, but Bay played well as well. You can’t take that away from them.”

Driven by her irrepressible spirit, Kanu is expected to bounce back for both club and country earlier than envisaged. Her resilience stems from tough childhood experiences, which she recently shared.

“I used to sell oranges and water on the streets of Aba. My brother and I would hawk sodas like Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Pepsi in the market. We’d cross paths, share a laugh, and then go our separate ways,” she said.

Kanu was a household name at Southeastern Fire, scoring 147 goals in 78 appearances for her college team between 2016 and 2019. She started her professional career with Pensacola in 2018 and scored 17 goals in 12 matches until 2020 when she went on to also play for Sevilla, Linköpings FC, and UANL, painting all destinations with goals.