Maccabi Haifa's defence is being rebuilt almost from scratch this summer, and according to a report on ONE, the next name in is a 23-year-old Dutch centre-back whose recent history reads like a warning label: two separate hamstring injuries in the space of three seasons.
ONE reports that the reigning champions are set to add Nigel Lonwijk, a Wolverhampton Wanderers player who has spent his entire senior career out on loan, to a backline that has lost several familiar faces this window. Neither Haifa nor Wolves have confirmed a deal, and it is being reported as a move in progress rather than a done transfer.
The need is real. Abdoulaye Seck, the Senegalese centre-back who anchored Haifa's defence for four seasons and was part of the 2022-23 championship squad, left as a free agent when his contract expired at the end of June. Romanian international Lisav Eissat, only 21, was sold to Bristol City in the Championship. And Brazilian centre-back Pedrão has struggled to recover from a serious knee injury, with his own Haifa future in real doubt.
Those exits are why Haifa have been busy adding names at the other end of the pitch, too — goalkeeper Omri Glazer returned to the club on a three-year deal to replace the departing Georgi Yermakov, while Brazilian defender Wanderson "Tsunami" de Freitas Soares and striker Andrea Novakovic have also signed. Lonwijk would be the piece meant to stabilise the back line itself.
On the pitch, there is plenty to like: at 1.95m, right-footed and comfortable in a back three or four, Lonwijk came up through PSV's academy before joining Wolves' youth setup in 2020. He has never played a senior match for Wolves themselves, instead building his career through a string of loans — Fortuna Sittard, then a League One title with Plymouth Argyle in 2022-23.
It's what came after Plymouth that ONE's piece is really about. Sent to Grasshopper Club Zürich in Switzerland for 2023-24, Lonwijk suffered a hamstring injury in pre-season and didn't make his debut until late October. He lasted one match — reinjuring the same hamstring in that game — before the loan was scrapped in mid-November and he was moved on to Wycombe Wanderers to salvage the rest of the season in League One.
The following year brought more of the same. Loaned to Huddersfield Town for 2024-25, Lonwijk again suffered a hamstring problem, this time ruled out for roughly four months from around March 2025 — a second significant soft-tissue injury in as many campaigns, and exactly the kind of pattern that gives recruitment staff pause.
Then came a turnaround. Wolves sent him out for a third straight season, this time to Luton Town in League One, and Lonwijk stayed largely fit throughout 2025-26 — more than 45 appearances across all competitions, a regular starter, and part of the Luton side that won the EFL Trophy.
That is the tension at the heart of ONE's report: a player who looked injury-prone for two straight seasons just produced the most durable campaign of his career. Whether that represents a genuine turning point, or simply one good season sandwiched between fitness breakdowns, is precisely the gamble Haifa would be taking if the move goes through.
For a club that has just lost the leadership and physical presence Seck provided at the back, banking on a defender with that recent history — however promising his last season looked — is a decision Haifa's medical and fitness staff will have weighed carefully before giving the green light.
