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Thu, Mar

Injury could hamper Garcia’s Watford, Wolfsburg move.
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T&T senior national football team and AEK Athens winger Levi Garcia is set to miss the start of his team's 2021/2022 season which kicks off on Saturday against OFI in the Greece Super League.

This after he suffered a torn meniscus which will have him sidelined for up to four weeks which now puts his possible transfer to English Premiership club, Watford FC or German Bundesliga outfit VfL Wolfsburg at risk.

The 23-year-old Garcia missed T&T's recent Concacaf Gold Cup involvement in the USA recently as he focused on recuperating from a hectic 2020/2021 which ended with his participation with the national team in the disastrous 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifying campaign in early June.

And with less than a week before the new Greek season kicked off the former Holland-based player was looking forward to building on his five goals scored from 26 appearances in his debut season in the Greek Super League after joining from Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem.

Earlier this month his younger brother Judah Garcia, 20, also signed with AEK Athens on a three-year contract and will line up for the second team in the Greek Super League 2.

But within recent days it was stated that while the younger Garcia has joined the club, his older brother could be on the way out with Premier League newcomers Watford having made a £4 million bid for the older Garcia, according to Sky Sports and Homme du Match.

A versatile wide man who can also play through the middle, former AZ Alkmaar youngster Garcia who scored a brace for T&T on his senior team debut also produced seven assists for Greek outfit last season.

It is understood that the bid by Watford for Garcia once dubbed the best player in the Israeli league by his then coach Vladimir Ivic is seen as a test-the-water but is way off the figure wanted by AEK, rumoured to be closer to £11 million for the speedy attacker.

Xisco Munoz’s side might have begun the new season in fine fettle, an Ismaila Sarr-inspired Watford out-playing and out-fighting Aston Villa, 3-2 on the opening day, but no one at Vicarage Road is getting carried away just yet.

However, Sarr is said to want out of Watford amid reports of a £40 million bid from Liverpool, which may see the bid for Garcia increased, depending on the seriousness of his injury.

According to another report, injured or not, Garcia has attracted a lot of interest from many clubs but AEK will not listen to offers for less than €15M while the highest bid so far is €7M from Wolfsburg, which was rejected.