Petkovic’s Obsession: Injuries and Lack of Competition

The Algerian national football team started a closed training camp, in anticipation of the first and second-round matches of the AFCON 2025 qualifiers, as the players arrived successively on Monday at the Fennecs’ training centre, after completing their commitments with their clubs, in various European and Arab leagues, such as Mandi and Boudaoui, in addition to Hadjam, who participated on Sunday evening in games with their clubs.

The Fennecs suffered a severe blow after the injury of the national team’s left-back, Rayan Ait Nouri, with his club Wolverhampton, where he will undergo routine tests with the Fennecs’ medical staff, to confirm the injury, as he may leave the training camp and return to his club for treatment, after it was confirmed that he will be absent from the matches against Equatorial Guinea and Liberia, on September 5 and 10, respectively.

What increases the troubles of the national coach Vladimir Petkovic is the number of injured players in the team, with the absence of Ait Nouri, and Amoura who did not recover, in addition to the injury that Boudaoui sustained during the last match of his club OGC Nice against Angers, as it is not clear whether he will participate or not in the next two matches of the Algerian national team, in addition to Amir Sayoud, who missed the last match of his team Al-Raed FC due to the injury against Al-Nasr of Saudi Arabia, to reduce the options further for the technical staff of the Fennecs, as Joan Hadjam, the Swiss Young Boys player, will be the first solution to replace Ait Nouri on the left wing, while the task of replacing Boudaoui if his injury is confirmed will be easy, given the presence of Bennacer, Zerrouki, Zorgane and Houssem Aouar, who is in high form.

Furthermore, the Fennecs’ coach Petkovic scheduled two training sessions at the Algerian team’s preparation in Algiers Sidi Moussa center, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, before travelling to the city of Oran (western Algeria) on a special flight.

The Algerian national team will conduct a training session on the main field of the Miloud Hadefi stadium, the day of the match, during which coach Petkovic will decide on the optimal formation with which he will enter the match on Thursday, against Equatorial Guinea, to achieve victory and an ideal start, in Group Five, to ensure qualification for the AFCON 2025, and avoid the language of calculations with the succession of matches.