Vancouver Whitecaps winger Kekuta Manneh has a future as bright as any youngster to come through the MLS ranks in recent memory.
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Blessed with the most frighteningly electric pace this side of Fabian Castillo and Dominic Oduro, the 21-year-old Gambian-born attacker, who’ll be granted full American citizenship later this year thus making him eligible for the U.S. national team, has steadily improved during his first three and a half seasons as a professional. So promising is Manneh that the UK press (prematurely) linked him with a move to a number of Premier League giants last summer.
He — and the ‘Caps — will have to wait to deliver on that promise after Manneh underwent successful fifth metatarsal fracture surgery in his right foot on Friday. He suffered the injury in the 43rd minute of the Whitecaps’ 2-2 draw with the Colorado Rapids last Saturday.
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The club did not give a timetable for his return to action, but head coach Carl Robinson expects Manneh to rejoin the first team before the end of the 2016 season: “We anticipate he will make a complete recovery and will be back training with the group in the fall.”