It became apparent during the European Championship that Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin did not see Noah Okafor as being a big part of his plans, and their relationship has taken a further turn.
Okafor’s national team coach spoke in the week before the tournament in Germany about the forward’s chances of playing and he seemed to criticise Milan’s use of him.
“Every move also involves great risks, he is rarely a starter with his club. Especially for a striker, it is important to play and his limited playing time is certainly not optimal,” he said.
According to Blick in Switzerland (via Radio Rossonera), Okafor will most likely not be called up by coach Yakin for the Nations League fixtures that will see Switzerland play against Denmark and Spain during the upcoming international break.
The coach had ‘already warned Okafor in March’ about his lack of playing time, which couple with his ‘attitude’ led Yakin to grant him zero minutes in the European Championship that took place in Germany.
Blick says that Okafor’s ‘dissatisfaction’ was evident in their pre-tournament training camp, both in the ‘lack of intensity in training’ and in his ‘negative body language’.
Despite a good start to the season with the Rossoneri – including a beautiful 95th-minute goal as a substitute at San Siro against Torino which gave Milan a draw – Okafor is therefore heading towards not being called up.