While his time at SuperSport United coming with no minutes played, Abubeker Nasir has still found an escape route to international football.
Nasir has moved from Mamelodi Sundowns to SuperSport at the beginning of the season but will watch the season pass by without playing.
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The Ethiopian has had issues with persistent injuries through most of his time at Sundowns since arriving from Ethiopian Coffee in June 2022.
Those injury concerns have forced Sundowns to find another solution for the 2024/25 season.
However, that loan will come to nothing this term after he was de-registered in January as one of five foreign players eligible to play for SuperSport.
Matsatsantsa now have Enoch Quaicoe (Ghana), Eric Mbangossoum (Chad), Samir Nurkovic (Serbia), Christian Saile Basomboli (DR Congo), and Terrence Dzvukamanja (Zimbabwe) as their five foreign players registered.
Prior to that, Nasir had only been an unused substitute once putting his last appearance as far back as December 2023 when he got 45 minutes for the champions against Cape Town Spurs.
Fifteen months of no minutes at club level haven't discouraged the Ethiopian national team selectors from bringing back Nasir three years since his last appearance.
Last year, Nasir received a call-up from then head coach Gebremdhin Haile despite not playing for over eight months at Sundowns but was eventually dropped due to fitness issues.
The 25-year-old has now been brought back and started in the 2-0 defeat to Egypt on Friday night in a Group A FIFA World Cup qualifier.
For all his troubles at club level, Nasir was able to last 78 minutes before he was then withdrawn.
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Sundowns signed Nasir in January 2022 but then loaned him to Ethiopian Coffee for six months after which he came back to make his debut during the 2022/23 season.
His time at Chloorkop has come with only 17 games with injuries becoming his second name.
Ethiopia play Djibouti on Monday night in another World Cup qualifier with Nasir expected to get minutes again.