The reason why head coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Eric Chelle didn’t include Victor Osimhen and four others in his squad for the upcoming friendly tournament has been made known to OwnGoalNigeria.com.
Nigeria will take part in a four team tournament in Turkey, Involving Iran, Jordan and Costa Rica. It was originally billled to take place in Jordan but was moved due to the escalation of violence in the Middle East.
Super Eagles won’t be at the world cup, but will use the tournament to begin the second phase of the rebuild of the team under Chelle, who led the team to a third place finish at the AFCON in January.
They will open their campaign at the tournament against Iran on the 27th of March, while Jordan take on Costa Rica in the tournament’s other game.
Top striker Osimhen was a notable absentee and a source reveal that his absence which happened before he suffered a broken arm, was done to keep him fresh as he has been playing with pains in his thighs for a month.
For Felix Agu of Werder Bremen he is still highly rated by Chelle but was left out as he just returned from a lengthy injury layoff. Ryan Alebiosu wasn’t included due to club engagement with his team Blackburn Rovers facing the prospect of relegation.
Stanley Nwabali was left out due to his inactivity like we exclusively reported earlier, while Ola Aina’s case is similar to that of Agu and related to Ryan as his team are in a relegation dog fight, and also he just returned from a long injury layoff that cost him the AFCON.
Ebenezer Akinsamiro was left out due to insufficient game time since his return from the AFCON, just like Tochukwu Nnadi who hasn’t got going since joining French Ligue 1 side Marseille from Belgium side Zulte Waregem.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
