Stoke City boss Michael O’Neill has confirmed that Oghenekaro Etebo will not be coming back to the English outfit when the January transfer window opens. After struggling for form during his time with the Potters, the 25-year-old was loaned out to Galatasaray until the end of the season.

The Nigeria international was signed from Portuguese outfit Feirense back in 2018 for around £ 6.5 million. He has struggled to make any impact at the English outfit and he has been sent out on loan to Spanish outfit Getafe already. Now, he made the switch to Galatasaray in September with the loan deal agreed until the end of the season.

Since the move to the Turkish club, however,Etebo has been unable to settle and he has only featured 11 games in all competitions for Fatih Terim’s team. This has led to rumours thatEtebo may be recalled much earlier from his loan spell so as to provide him with opportunities in the game. O’Neill, however, has confirmed that there are no plans to get the midfielder back early from his loan spell. It should be remembered that Getafe did have the option of making a loan deal permanent towards the end of last season, but they did not take up the option.
“It’s definitely a rumour. The players who are out on loan are out on loan for the season and that won't change. It was what they wanted at that period in time.They made that decision and we made that decision as a club. Maybe because the loan hasn’t gone well, you can’t just decide you want to come back. It doesn’t work like that. We don’t envisage any of the loan players who are currently at various clubs returning to Stoke in January,” said O'Neill about the future ofEtebo.