Omar Rekik has dropped out of the Tunisia squad for the World Cup, after featuring in their last squad and returning from injury last week.

Omar Rekik celebrates a goal for Sparta Rotterdam (Photo by Carla Vos/Cor Vos © 2022)
Omar Rekik celebrates a goal for Sparta Rotterdam in pre-season (Photo by Carla Vos/Cor Vos © 2022)

Arsenal loanee Omar Rekik has made plenty of appearances in the Tunisia squad for his age, reaching double figures at 20.

The defender made a couple of appearances at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament earlier this year, and he was in the Tunisia squad over the September international break.

Yet when Tunisia announced their World Cup squad on Monday morning, Rekik wasn’t in it.

It’s not hard to identify the reason for Rekik’s removal from the squad, as he’s simply struggled to get on the pitch this season.

The defender has played 15 minutes of club football with Sparta Rotterdam’s first team, and to make matters worse, he missed the last few weeks of action with a muscle injury.

Rekik returned to the bench for Sparta on Friday, raising a glimmer of hope he might be called up to travel to Qatar, but it wasn’t to be.

Omar Rekik (number 4) celebrates with the Tunisia squad (Photo via Hannibal.actu on Instagram)
Omar Rekik (number 4) celebrates with the Tunisia squad (Photo via Instagram)

With the exception of Salah-Eddine Oulad M’hand, who hasn’t played a single second for Hull City thanks to injury, Rekik is the Arsenal loanee to receive the least game time this season.

Unlike Oulad M’hand, Rekik has only missed four of his team’s matches through injury, making the squad for the other 11 games. But he hasn’t been utilised on the pitch by his loan side.

The one piece of good news from all this is that Rekik now has a month and a half to ensure he puts his injury completely behind him. There’s no longer any rush to start playing before he’s ready.

But with the way this loan has gone so far, Rekik may well find himself returning to Arsenal in January, before Sparta play their next game on January 7th.