EL KAABI SURGERY SUCCESSFUL; REHABILITATION NOW BEGINS | OneFootball

Olympiacos Training Session Prior To 2nd Leg, 3rd Round UCL Qualifier Against NEC Nijmegen - Klodian Lato/EUROKINISSI

Twenty-four hours ago, the discussion surrounding Ayoub El Kaabi was dominated by uncertainty.

El Kaabi underwent surgery on Sunday morning under Olympiacos medical chief Christos Theos and his team at the Palaio Faliro Clinic of Athens Medical Center. Reporting carrying the club's official medical update says the procedure was successful and his postoperative course is developing normally.

For a player facing a serious lower-leg fracture, that is the first crucial checkpoint. But it is only the first.

That makes the rehabilitation process substantial and helps explain why some external recovery estimates have stretched toward the six-to-seven-month range. But there is a distinction we should preserve throughout this process: reported medical-recovery ranges are not the same thing as an Olympiacos return timetable.

Olympiacos have not announced that El Kaabi will return in four months. They have not announced six months.

They have not announced seven months. Instead, the club's stated objective is a gradual, safe and complete return. That is the sensible approach.

Rehabilitation will be dictated by milestones rather than the calendar

For an elite footballer recovering from this type of fracture, simply reaching the point where the bone has healed is not the end of the process. El Kaabi ultimately needs to recover:

full weight-bearing capacity,

ankle and knee mobility,

lower-leg strength,

single-leg stability,

running mechanics,

acceleration and deceleration,

contact tolerance,

and finally the explosive movements that define his game.

That last part matters enormously. El Kaabi's football is built around repeated high-intensity movements: attacking the space between center-back and fullback, sudden changes of direction in the box, jumping through contact and pressing at speed.

Olympiacos do not merely need him medically cleared. They need El Kaabi capable of being El Kaabi again.

That is why projecting a competitive return from today's calendar alone would be misleading.

Theos travelling back with El Kaabi shows how seriously Olympiacos handled the first hours

One detail in the subsequent reporting is particularly notable. Christos Theos reportedly travelled back to Athens in the ambulance with El Kaabi from Volos, monitoring his condition and supporting him during the transfer before operating the following morning.

That indicates Olympiacos moved immediately from emergency management to definitive treatment.

From the moment the injury occurred, the priority was stabilization, transportation and then surgery without unnecessary delay.

Now the responsibility moves from the surgical team toward the long rehabilitation programme.

The football problem has not changed

A successful operation is excellent medical news. It does not lessen the sporting consequences. José Luis Mendilibar must still prepare for an extended period without his first-choice striker.

That means Armando González becomes immediately more important, while the status of Roman Yaremchuk and Clayton requires reconsideration — particularly because one existing registered player can potentially replace El Kaabi on Olympiacos' European List A under UEFA's serious-injury provisions.

What has changed today is psychological. Yesterday Olympiacos were dealing with trauma and uncertainty.

Today they can begin planning. The player is stable. The surgery is complete. The rehabilitation process has started.

The question is no longer what has happened to El Kaabi?