Leeds star Noah Okafor faces third Switzerland snub - this bizarre reason is why

Leeds United forward Noah Okafor once again failed to register a minute at the World Cup.

For the third time in as many matches, he was an unused sub for Switzerland as they faced Canada.

Winning 2-1 in Vancouver, the Schweizer Nati sealed their place in the round of 16, with Canada also going through in second place.

Ruben Vargas and Johan Manzambi scored two in the second half, before Promise David halved the deficit.

Okafor scored eight Premier League goals last season, with his form at the end of the year pushing Daniel Farke's side over the survival line.

However, his international struggles continue, and there could be one bizarre reason as to why.

Is there a grudge held by Murat Yakin?

Due to an incident stretching back to Euro 2024, Okafor has not featured for the Nati since then.

Publicly criticising the national team setup's lack of communication, he would go directly to director Pierluigi Tami to question his lack of playing time under boss Murat Yakin at the tournament.

As a result, he would not meet up with his compatriots again until the recent March break, when he would apologise to his teammates.

Recovering from injury issues at the time, he would not feature, but now that he is back fully fit, he may be questioning whether the incident of two years ago is impacting his chances under Yakin moving forward.

Earlier this year, it appeared that the past had been forgotten, but playing a grand total of 0 minutes at the World Cup could suggest otherwise.

Switzerland's attackers examined as Okafor goes without chance again

Switzerland would draw their opening match with Qatar, despite leading for large periods.

Ruben Vargas and Dan Ndoye would continue to plug on the flanks, with no real success from either.

At the same time, impressive Freiburg youngster Manzambi would have to wait for his opportunity.

Manzambi now sits as their top scorer with three, while the aforementioned Vargas has two.

But even after the attacking improvement in the last two, Yakin has not even looked to get Okafor involved from the bench - the only attacker in this category, with even Burnley's Zeki Amdouni racking up substitute minutes.

After scoring eight premier league goals and bringing bags of pace and energy, there is surely no other reason as to why Okafor cannot even sniff a chance, other than a potential grudge still being held by Yakin.