It looks like we could see Moïse Bombito back on the pitch for OGC Nice before the French club’s season ends, and that is fantastic news for the Canadian men’s national team.

It has been over a year since Bombito last stepped onto the pitch wearing a Canadian men’s national team kit, after a string of long-term injuries. A broken wrist was followed by a stress fracture in his leg, which most recently became a broken tibia in October while playing with Nice. But the wait could soon be over.

“Things are progressing well,” Nice manager Claude Puel said Friday about his Canadian centre-back, when asked about a slew of injuries Nice have been dealing with. “He’ll be joining us soon.”

Nice have four matches remaining in the Ligue 1 season before the Coupe de France final against Lens on May 22. With the Canadian anchoring their backline, Nice have struggled in the bottom half of the table this season but have pulled themselves up to 15th place with a nine point cushion ahead of Sunday’s visit to Olympique de Marseille.

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Bombito played every single minute of Jesse Marsch’s first 15 matches in charge of Canada before the broken wrist, a span that included a scoreless draw in France against the 2018 World Cup winners and back-to-back finalists, as well as Canada’s run to the semifinals of the 2024 Copa America.

He quickly became one of the CanMNT’s most important players, and has been missed in the group, but was welcomed back with open arms in March when he joined them in Toronto as a training player for their friendlies against Haiti and Tunisia.

Bombito is not ready to play yet, though, and with under two months until the World Cup kicks off, Marsch’s staff is doing everything they can to ensure that he is ready to be on the pitch against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12.

Courtesy: Josh Kim/Waking The Red

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Bombito sat down with OneSoccer’s Kristian Jack recently, and opened up on his time away from the team for the past year, and where he is physically in the lead up to the World Cup.

“Plenty of setbacks for sure, it’s been a tough year all around,” Bombito said, later adding that his teammates have made him feel like he hasn’t missed a beat. “To be honest, I missed being around here for sure because of the vibe, the camaraderie is special. You don’t get that everywhere you go so I definitely felt that I needed to be back.

“Obviously Jesse and I have stayed in contact and we have kept each other updated about my progress and all that stuff, so we were at the point where coming in was a good idea to continue my rehab, and I’m getting closer to to full health now.”

Bombito was playing at the University of New Hampshire during the last World Cup, and he has since proven himself in MLS, on the international stage, and in the French top flight. Now, he’s ready to take on the biggest games one can play in a career: the FIFA World Cup on home soil.

Courtesy: University of New Hampshire

He remembers watching his close friend Ismaël Koné play at the last tournament, and is excited for the chance to play with him this time around.

“I was rooting for him back in in ’22 and I was just like, ‘Wow, it’s such an amazing feeling to see him play, represent us and and just do well’,” Bombito recalled. “Now I’m in the same position as him and my friends or my family back home are watching me and they’re saying the same stuff as me. I want to represent them well, I want them to say, “Yeah, he went out there and he showed up for us.” That’s the main goal.

“For me, I want to be able to play free, play with joy, embrace the moment because that doesn’t come around every year obviously, it comes every four and you never know when your career is going to stop, so you’ve got to take every moment with gratitude and just do your job.”

Courtesy: Josh Kim/Canadian Soccer Daily

A timetable for Bombito’s return to the pitch has still not been made public, but the hope is that it is sooner rather than later. There are four matches left in Nice’s season, and while the club is looking like they will be safe from relegation with nine points up on the relegation zone, adding their Canadian defensive rock for any part of the final stretch would be welcomed.

Canada is next in action on June 1 and June 5 for pre-World Cup friendlies against Uzbekistan and the Republic of Ireland. Those games will be after Marsch’s final World Cup squad has been selected at the end of May.

The CanMNT kick off their tournament in Toronto against Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12.