Yassine Bounou injured in warm-up before Al Hilal face Neom

Al Hilal suffered a late setback before their Roshn Saudi League meeting with Neom on Monday when goalkeeper Yassine Bounou was injured during the warm-up and withdrawn from the starting line-up.

Bounou felt pain in his posterior thigh shortly before kick-off, with Al Hilal confirming that Mohammed Al-Owais would replace the Morocco international in goal. The club has not yet announced the severity of the injury or provided an expected timeframe for his absence.

The change was made only minutes before the match began, leaving Al Hilal without the goalkeeper who had been selected to start in their sixth-round league fixture. Mohammed Al-Rubaie was included among the substitutes as cover for Bounou.

Head coach Simone Inzaghi consequently turned to Al-Owais for the match against Neom. The Saudi goalkeeper has already featured for Al Hilal this season and brings considerable experience from his time with the club and the Saudi Arabia national team.

Bounou’s injury came as an unexpected blow because he had been named in Inzaghi’s planned starting side as Al Hilal looked to maintain their strong beginning to the Roshn Saudi League campaign.

The goalkeeper had completed the pre-match preparations before suffering the problem, meaning the decision to replace him was taken immediately before the start of the contest. No further medical assessment or details about the injury had been released at the time of the announcement.

Al-Owais therefore began another match for Al Hilal, while Al-Rubaie moved into the matchday squad as the replacement goalkeeper. The pair were the available goalkeeping options after Bounou was ruled out of the starting team.

The last-minute switch was the only change prompted by Bounou’s injury before the meeting with Neom. Al Hilal’s technical staff, led by the Italian Inzaghi, opted to trust Al-Owais despite the disruption to their preparations.

The match formed part of the sixth round of the Roshn Saudi League and was scheduled to take place on Monday evening. Al Hilal had entered the fixture seeking to continue their impressive early momentum, but their plans were altered when Bounou went down during the warm-up.

The club is yet to state whether the Morocco goalkeeper will be available for Al Hilal’s next match. His eventual recovery period will depend on the outcome of the medical checks carried out after the thigh pain he reported before kick-off.