Cyriel Dessers will miss the remainder of the season after being forced to undergo surgery following a serious injury sustained during the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Panathinaikos striker suffered the injury shortly before Nigeria’s final group-stage match at the tournament. Early medical assessments revealed a rupture involving a tendon connected to the rectus femoris in his right leg, raising immediate concerns about the extent of the damage.
Despite the severity of the diagnosis, the club initially opted against surgical intervention. Instead, Panathinaikos’ medical team pursued a conservative approach, placing Dessers on a rehabilitation programme in the hope that he could recover in time to return before the end of the campaign.
There was cautious optimism within the club that a carefully managed recovery plan might allow the forward to resume playing duties. That hope appeared realistic in the early stages of his rehabilitation, with progress suggesting that surgery might be avoided.
However, the situation took a turn when Dessers returned to higher-intensity training in mid-March. During these sessions, he began to experience renewed discomfort in the affected area, prompting fresh concerns among the club’s medical staff.
Further examinations were subsequently carried out to assess the condition of the injury. According to reports from Sportal Greece, these tests confirmed that the tendon had not healed sufficiently through rehabilitation alone.
As a result, surgery has now been deemed unavoidable, effectively ending Dessers’s season prematurely.
The decision represents a significant setback both for the player and for Panathinaikos, who will now have to navigate the remainder of the campaign without one of their attacking options.
Dessers’s absence is expected to impact the team’s attacking depth, particularly at a crucial stage of the season. The Nigerian international had been part of the club’s forward line, and his unavailability reduces the options available to the coaching staff as they look to finish the season strongly.
The development also raises questions about the player’s timeline for recovery beyond the current campaign, although no further details have been provided regarding his expected return date.
For Dessers, the focus will now shift to a successful surgical procedure and a longer-term rehabilitation process, after initial hopes of a quicker return were ultimately dashed.
