{"id":15096,"date":"2025-11-12T10:39:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T08:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=15096"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:26","slug":"cameroon-world-cup-hopes-hit-by-injury-blows","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/cameroon-world-cup-hopes-hit-by-injury-blows\/","title":{"rendered":"Cameroon World Cup hopes hit by injury blows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Cameroon have been hit by two major injury blows, and face a possible third ahead of Thursday\u2019s World Cup playoff against the Democratic Republic of Congo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Veteran striker Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and in-form midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa have been ruled out of the match in Rabat, where Cameroon are looking to keep alive their World Cup hopes.<\/p>\n<p>Goalkeeper Andre Onana is also a doubt after suffering an ankle injury, football federation officials added.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Choupo-Moting has suffered a knee sprain while Zambo Anguissa pulled out of Tuesday\u2019s training session with a hamstring injury. The midfielder, who turns 30 on Sunday, has scored four goals for Napoli in Serie A this season.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Cameroon are participating in a playoff tournament for the four best runners-up across the nine African World Cup qualifying groups, which concluded their fixtures last month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s mini-tournament offers the possibility of a 10th representative for the continent at next year\u2019s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n<p>If Cameroon win on Thursday, they would progress to a final in Rabat on Sunday against either Gabon or Nigeria to determine the African side that advances to the intercontinental playoff in March, where the last places for the 48-team World Cup will be determined.<br \/>\nCameroon&#8217;s Indomitable Lions have competed in eight previous World Cups more than any other African nation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14987,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-15096","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"If Cameroon win on Thursday, they would progress to a final in Rabat on Sunday.","published_date":null,"news_description":"If Cameroon win on Thursday, they would progress to a final in Rabat on Sunday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27199,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15096\/revisions\/27199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=15096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}