Football postponements yet another untimely blow for Celtic's Eboue Kouassi

By David Walton

March 16, 2020

Eboue Kouassi’s luck just refuses to take a turn for the better.

Nobody is over the moon that football has essentially been halted in Europe. The current global health crisis makes it a necessity, but when it comes to luck, you have to feel for Celtic’s Kouassi.

For far too long has the Ivorian been struck by set-back after setback in his career. For the most part it’s been injuries that have held him back, but now it’s a health disaster totally outwith the player’s control.

Eboue Kouassi in action for Celtic (Igor Russak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

And perhaps most cruelly for Kouassi is the fact that football has been shut down almost immediately after he broke a 41-month duck.

Indeed, Kouassi played 90 minutes against Club Brugge for his loan club Genk on March 1st. He then followed that up with another full 90 minutes against Oostende a week later (Transfermarkt).

41-month duck was put to bed

Those two appearances meant that it was the first time that Kouassi had managed two full games since October 2016 against CSKA Moscow and Rubin Kazan. That was, of course, during his days with Krasnodar in Russia.

So his appearance against Oostende would’ve been huge for him on a personal note. But once again, just when he was picking up some momentum, something has come up which has provided him with another set-back.

You only have to go back to early on into his time with Genk to find his previous blow. An injury in training ruled him out of two games after he had initially won a place in the side.

Eboue Kouassi just can’t catch a break (Bruno Fahy/Belga Mag/AFP via Getty Images)

But his most damaging setback came last season. Towards the end of 2018, Kouassi had managed to string together a few appearances in the Celtic side and looked ready to kick on. However, he tore his ACL against Hearts back in November 2018 and ended up not playing another game for us since then.

He’s been absolutely luck-less in recent years and deserves better. Kouassi himself was given four months by Genk sporting director Dimitri de Conde to prove himself worthy of staying in Belgium (Metro).

Now, even that opportunity is up in the air considering nobody knows what’s happening with football and loan players.

Once again it looked as though Kouassi was set for a run of form. Once again he was being given opportunities and looked like showing what he was all about. However, once again, he’s been let down by another set-back.