Udinese of Italy defender, William Troost-Ekong is set to miss his club’s next match in the Italian Serie A, as he has to serve a match suspension on account of accumulated yellow cards, megasportsaerena.com gathered.
Troost-Ekong got his latest booking during Thursday’s shock 2-1 victory over Juventus, in which the Super Eagles’ stopper pulled off his best performance of the season in 90 minutes of action for his Udine-based side.
His sterling performance helped The Little Zebras secure a comeback win over The Old Lady but, while Troost-Ekong was happy to help his team boost their chances of escaping relegation at the end of this season, the Holland-born stopper will not be there to further help them consolidate this Sunday against Cagliari.
All he can do now is just to continue cherishing the delight of his contribution in Thursday’s historic victory for Udinese, who he declared truly deserved their success against the Serie A’s serial champions.
Although his side fell behind to Juve through Matthijs de Ligt’s 42nd-minute effort, Troost-Ekong and his pals bounced back to seal the victory thanks to strikes from Ilija Nestorovski and Cote d’Ivoire international, Seko Fofana; such that Cristiano Ronaldo et al have to wait until another day to clinch their ninth successive Italian top-flight title.
The former Tottenham Hotspur of England youth team player, who has also starred for Utrecht of Holland, Haugesund of Denmark, KAA Gent of Belgium and Bursaspor of Turkey, disclosed that he and his teammates were all determined not to allow Juventus have they way at Stadio Friuli; and that zeal earned them all three points at home.
The game also accorded a revealing part of his personal quality, as the 26-year-old mulatto star switched from the defence to midfield against Juventus; yet he put up a yeoman’s performance that eventually helped Udinese move up to 15th in the Italian top-flight log – having garnered 39 points from 35 league outings and now stand seven points off the drop zone.
However, while Troost-Ekong declared afterwards that he is ready to feature wherever he is deployed by the coach, he will miss Sunday’s outing with Cagliari over card accumulation sequel to the 20th minute yellow card he got for a clumsy challenge on Juve midfielder, Aaron Ramsey.
Although Troost-Ekong and his teammates disputed the caution from the match referee, the card stands, such that the energetic defender is suspended from this weekend’s fixture, but he believes his colleagues will cope without him and he will return to help Udinese confirmed that their place remains in the Serie A with victory in their next match against Lecce on Wednesday.
Troost-Ekong told Udinese TV: “I am very happy because of these three heavy points and also because before the game, no one would have bet on us. They came here to celebrate and that charged us before the game. We played with personality and we deserved to win.
“Well, I played in the middle for two years but after the lockdown, the manager wanted me to move to the right. Obviously, he decides how we get on the field but I think as a defensive midfielder I can be more useful to the team.
“In my opinion it was not a serious foul to have warranted a caution, however, I have confidence in the team and I know they can do it even without me. On the other hand, I hope to be able to help them in the challenge against Lecce.”
