2025 was a challenging year for Obinna Nwobodo personally, but one that anyone can look at for inspiration through his perseverance.
After suffering a significant hip injury in a match at CF Montréal – an ailment that would require surgery and months of rehabilitation without a promise of success by the end of the season – Obinna Nwobodo pushed himself each and every day to get back to the field. He put his head down and worked, and by all accounts from FC Cincinnati Sports Performance staff, was an ideal patient in his recovery. He communicated, listened, pushed himself when asked to, and held back appropriately as well when the time called for it.
So, on October 18th, nearly four months to the day of his initial injury, the Nigerian midfielder made his return to the pitch. A 45-minute starting appearance on Decision Day that helped see FCC to a 3-0 victory.
Nwobodo would go on to feature in all four of The Orange and Blue’s MLS Cup Playoff games, but would only appear for a combined 42 minutes in the postseason. His injury, while technically overcome, left him needing to build up his fitness and refine his game, and with a stable of strong midfielders to call upon, the Cincy veteran, with now well over 100 appearances for the club, took an understudy role, but his leadership never waned, and he contributed to the team in significant ways.
It was a willing, knowing, and understanding move that the player accepted for the good of the team. Only further underlining his character.
Well, we fast-forward now approximately three months, with the new season on the horizon. Obinna Nwobodo is ready to push for more in 2026. He starts that mission by being grateful for his health, and pointing to it as the basis for his mission of team success this season.
“I want to be healthy. You have a better chance when you're healthy to help the team and to also improve yourself. So first, I want to be healthy, and secondly, I want to win. The first goal helps the second,” Nwobodo said intently this preseason as to his objectives in 2026, only ever so cracking a smile after delivering that final qualifier.
“Yes, I want to win because I think we have what it takes to do that, and I want to be part of the group that will win a trophy, more trophies for this team,” Nwobodo continued. “So that in the future. I will not have anything to regret, because we can’t have this group and not win trophies.”
The rehabilitation process and regimen for Nwobodo was grueling, both in part because of the injury but also because of how he plays the game. The specific injury, which required surgery to repair a torn quadriceps tendon, isn’t uncommon (it’s not exactly common either, but it happens), though the severity of the damage made the injury significant. There are other athletes who have suffered the same injury who do not need surgery to recover, but his specific case made it not only preferred, but necessary, to be surgically repaired.
Similarly, Nwobodo plays the game hard. The intensity at which he operates and the physicality of his style makes for a different kind of approach. A different player, who plays the game differently, could have taken a softer approach to their recovery. But to get Nwobodo back not only healthy but also playing the game his way, both the player and FCC had to consider this and ramp up the approach for his return to play.
“He was an absolute grinder,” a member of the FC Cincinnati Sports Science staff said of Nwobodo’s recovery. “The key with him was that he was mentally tough the whole way through, and if there was a target or a goal we had set for him, he would meet it, no matter how tough it was. He would absolutely grind through all the boring, but important, elements of recovery and never complained once.”
So now, with a preseason in full swing, Nwobodo is ready to focus less on himself and more on the team. He has prioritized using this time before the season starts to get the squad on the same page and build a foundation the club can build on all season long.
“Preseason is very important to going forward in the season, because you then get to start the season well if you have a good preseason,” Nwobodo explained. “Some teams, with a bad preseason, it’s already in the middle of the season before you get sorted, and a lot of the season, a lot of teams, have gone far away with points, and you can get it back.
“So it's very important to have a good preseason to get to know each other. We have a lot of the same guys, but also a lot of new players, a lot of changes in the team. Even some of the returning players from last year joined late so we don’t know them as well. And the best way to get to know each other is through the preseason.”
Nwobodo is now a veteran with FC Cincinnati, and his presence and ownership of the team and its success have only grown. Several teammates, when polled, instantly pointed to him as a locker-room leader that outsiders or fans may not realize. His 128 appearances across all competitions for The Orange and Blue rank sixth all-time now, and he is fourth among active members of the team. With the team also adding several African players to the mix, his leadership as a mentor and welcoming presence has grown; players like Samuel Gidi have shared that, even before their arrival in Cincinnati, Nwobodo has connected with them to ease the transition.
It is all those reasons this preseason feels so substantial to Nwobodo. The chance to continue connecting all members of the team, both new and old, is an opportunity to set the standard for the 2026 season in a way they may not have been able to in years past.
“I'm excited. We always want to play with the same guys. In soccer, you have to be ready to move and be ready to have new friends, new teammates every time. But it's always interesting when you have the people that you're comfortable with – friendship wise and also in the pitch connection – already there,” Nwobodo explained. “So it's exciting to see that we have more of the group in the same way we finished last year, so I'm excited. We can build together now.”
“Working hard will be the default for us from the start, we can make that so,” Nwobodo continued, outlining what they will look to build. “We believe that the harder you work, the more opportunity you get and the more chances you get in winning games and winning trophies. So, I just think we have to keep working hard and make that part of who we are. Only then can we say hopefully this is going to be our year.”
FC Cincinnati kick off their 2026 season in just two weeks when they head to the Dominican Republic to take on O&M FC in the opening round of the Concacaf Champions Cup.
