Ismael Saibari’s World Cup Dream in Jeopardy After Injury Against Canada
Ismael Saibari’s World Cup exploded into life over the past fortnight. On Saturday in Houston, it juddered to a halt.
Twenty-two minutes into Morocco’s last‑16 clash with Canada, the Atlas Lions’ leading scorer pulled up in the middle of an attacking move, hand immediately raised, face twisted in frustration. No dramatic fall. No heavy challenge. Just the unmistakable body language of a player who knows something has gone badly wrong.
He tried a step, then another. That was it.
From talisman to passenger in a few seconds
Saibari, on three goals at this World Cup after striking against Brazil, Scotland and Haiti in the group stage, had started brightly again. He drifted between the lines, linked play, occupied defenders. Morocco looked comfortable, confident, in control.
Then came the sprint that changed everything. As he accelerated, his right leg tightened, and he stopped dead, reaching for the back of his thigh. The medical team rushed on; the verdict on the pitch was swift. No gamble, no strapping and “see how it goes.” Morocco were not prepared to risk their new star.
Soufiane Rahimi was summoned from the bench, Saibari trudged off in visible discomfort, and a packed Houston Stadium watched one of the tournament’s breakout players disappear down the tunnel.
Morocco still cruised to a 3–0 win, their second straight run to the FIFA World Cup quarterfinals secured with authority. Yet the mood around the team after full time was shaded by a single question: will Saibari be fit to play any further part?
Hamstring concern and a worrying pattern
Initial indications point to a muscle injury in the back of his right thigh, in line with a hamstring strain. The full extent will only be known after scans and medical tests in the coming hours, but the nature of the incident – a non-contact pull, the immediate substitution signal – will concern both Morocco and his new club, Bayern Munich.
This is not an isolated issue. Earlier this year, while still at PSV Eindhoven, Saibari missed around a month between April and May with a muscle problem, sitting out three Eredivisie matches. Go back to April and May of 2023 and there was another muscular setback, that time costing him 22 days.
The pattern is clear: repeated muscular interruptions at a time when his career is accelerating fast.
For Bayern, who have just committed around $63 million (€55 million) to bring him to the Bundesliga on a contract running through 2031, every twinge and scan result will be monitored closely. For Morocco, it is more immediate and more visceral. This is their leading scorer, their creative spark, sidelined at the sharp end of a World Cup they genuinely believe they can win.
A body tested, a career surging
Saibari’s story only sharpens the sense of jeopardy. Long before he was a record transfer or a World Cup headline, he was a child dealing with a congenital foot condition that stopped him walking normally until around the age of two. Orthopedic treatment fixed what nature had complicated, and he grew into the powerful, elegant midfielder now driving Morocco’s golden era.
That early issue, doctors stress, has nothing to do with the hamstring problem that forced him off against Canada. Still, the contrast is striking: a player who fought through a childhood condition now battling the kind of muscular setbacks that can stalk modern elite footballers.
This latest one has arrived at the worst possible time. At the peak of his form. In the knockout rounds. With Morocco back in the last eight of a World Cup for the second consecutive tournament and daring to look even higher.
They have shown they can dominate without him, as the 3–0 scoreline underlined. But knockout football is unforgiving, and players like Saibari tilt tight games. His ability to find pockets of space, to arrive late in the box, to turn half-chances into goals – that is what separates a brave run from a historic one.
The scans will tell Morocco how much of their dream he can still shape.
