Nigeria forward Esther Okoronkwo is expected to miss the rest of the year with an injury, AFC Toronto coach Marko Milanovic said Thursday, dealing another blow to the defending Supporters' Shield winners as they chase a second straight regular-season title.
The injury also means that Okoronkwo will be out of the CAF Women's Olympic qualifier against Comoros next month, as the Super Falcons begin their quest to be one of two African teams to reach LA 2028.
Milanovic told reporters at a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday's Northern Super League game against Calgary Wild, that OKonkwo will not be available for the game and for the rest of the season.
"She won't be available (for the game)," he said. "And we don't expect her to come back this season."
He added that the club have yet to determine exactly when the injury occurred or establish a final diagnosis, despite Okoronkwo undergoing multiple scans.
"It's hard to know exactly where it happened," Milanovic said. "It could have been just wear and tear over a longer period."
Prior to playing at WAFCON last month, Okoronkwo was only seeing restricted minutes at Toronto after her return from injury, and Milanovic acknowledged that the WAFCON campaign may have contributed to her current condition, although Toronto cannot pinpoint when the problem deteriorated.
"Obviously, WAFCON was a factor as well,' he said. "But we're not quite sure where the injury got worse.
"She's had multiple MRIs, obviously, since the injury. Some of the things presented themselves a little differently than what they were, despite MRI usually being able to show you everything."
Asked whether doctors had reached a definitive diagnosis, Milanovic said the club was still waiting.
"So, we're still waiting to confirm that," he said. "But she's more than likely out for the rest of the year."
The news comes at a difficult time for Toronto, who host Calgary Wild at BMO Field on Sunday while sitting third in the NSL standings with 31 points, three behind league-leading Montreal Roses with seven games remaining.
Okoronkwo's absence is particularly telling because Toronto will also be without leading scorer Kaylee Hunter and midfielder Olivia Chisholm while they are away with Canada at the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Poland.
For the Nigerian, the injury has effectively wiped out a season that barely had a chance to get started. The 29-year-old opened the campaign with a goal and an assist in Toronto's 3-2 victory over Vancouver Rise on April 24, but has managed only 231 league minutes this season, with one goal and one assist.
That is a sharp contrast to her impact in Toronto's inaugural season where she tallied 11 goals and a league-leading eight assists across the regular season and playoffs in 2025, helping Toronto win the inaugural NSL Supporters' Shield. She was also named to the league's Team of the Season.
Her club form was matched by an outstanding international year as she played a central role for Nigeria as the Super Falcons won an unprecedented 10th African title at the 2025 WAFCON tournament in Morocco.
She finished with six assists and was at the heart of Nigeria's comeback from two goals down to beat Morocco 3-2 in the final, scoring from the penalty spot and creating the other two goals.
She was named Player of the Match in the final, selected in CAF's tournament Best XI and subsequently voted the Super Falcons' Fans' Player of the Tournament narrowly losing the official CAF Player of the Tournament award to her teammate and captain Rasheedat Ajibade.
Twelve months later, and plagued by injury, Okoronkwo was unable to replicate that form as Nigeria endured their worst WAFCON campaign.
Although she started the Super Falcons' opening 3-2 defeat to Malawi, Okoronkwo only played only 10 minutes against Zambia, was an unused substitute in the 6-2 victory over Egypt and came off the bench in the quarterfinal defeat to Cameroon.
She did not play in the subsequent 2-1 loss to South Africa that ended Nigeria's hopes of reaching the intercontinental playoffs for the 2027 Women's World Cup.
That defeat meant the nine-time World Cup participants failed to qualify for the tournament for the first time.
