Victor Osimhen and Henry Onyekuru are the two fully fit players yet to play a game for the Super Eagles at the ongoing AFCON 2019 taking place in Egypt, where Nigeria have progressed to the knock out round of the tournament.
The duo scored a combined total of 35 league goals last season with Osimhen hitting 20 for Belgium side Charleroi while Onyekuru had 15 for Turkish champions Galatasaray .
Despite their impressive form in the just concluded season, they have both been made to play second fiddle at the AFCON with Osimhen dropping down to third choice behind first choice forward Odion Ighalo and second choice Paul Onuachu.
For Onyekuru who normally plays from the wings for the Nigerian team, the quartet of Ahmed Musa, Samuel Chukwueze, Samuel Kalu and Alex Iwobi have all played ahead of him in the wide areas in the games played so far.
Explaining the decision not to play them, Rohr said they have not should enough to convince him to give them a spot in the team base on their performance in training, hence his decision not to play them yet.
“We can’t play everyone at the same, we wanted to see Ogu and Kalu play, we also decided to see Ekong again in defence after missing out from the last game”, Rohr said.
” We can’t make eleven changes in the line-up, we made five changes against Madagascar and we also made five changes in the two previous games, the tournament is not over yet and I hope we’ll have another four matches to play all the players.
“And of course, we would like to see other players but sometimes the attitude of the players in the training sessions or the general attitude show us they are not ready for such a big game but it was good to see the other players and to give some rest to the important players but you cannot change all the players and still want to win also.”
