Bombito returns to Nice XI, but Gold Cup availability uncertain
Published
Following a broken wrist last month, there is now a question mark over Moise Bombito’s availability for the Canada squad ahead of June’s Gold Cup.
Although the 25-year-old centre-back is fit enough to return to Nice’s lineup Friday to face Reims -- and will wear a wrist guard for Nice's remaining three league games -- his agent, Nick Mavromaras, tells TSN that Bombito is scheduled to have surgery at the end of May, immediately after the Ligue 1 season, to repair a broken scaphoid bone in his left wrist.
Bombito incurred the injury on April 12 against Strasbourg and missed two league games.
Mavromaras also confirmed Bombito’s upcoming surgery, and the resulting recovery period, might affect Bombito’s participation in the Gold Cup.
There is exactly one month between Nice's final Ligue 1 game against Brest on May 17 and Canada's opening Gold Cup game in Vancouver against Honduras on June 17.
Over the last 10 months, Bombito has become a must-start central defender for both club and country, after standout performances for Canada at last summer’s Copa America earned the Montreal native a move to Nice from the Colorado Rapids in MLS.
Bombito has started 32 games for Nice in all competitions this season, on top of 17 starts over the last year for Canada.
Bombito’s wrist injury is his second ailment this season, after a groin problem sidelined him for three games in January.
With 31 matches played, Nice sits sixth in the table on 54 points, level with both seventh-place Strasbourg and fifth-place Lyon. The team currently occupies the final Ligue 1 European spot and would earn passage to the Europa Conference League with a sixth-place finish. They trail Monaco for the final Champions League spot by one point.