Super Eagles forward Kelechi Iheanacho is expected to team up with the rest of the squad in Ivory Coast on Saturday, one day before Nigeria’s first match against Equatorial Guinea at the 2023 AFCON even as Real Sociedad forward, Umar Sadiq is also not fully fit for Nigeria’s opening game.
The AFCON which kicks off on Saturday with a game between Nigeria’s Group A foes – hosts Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau – will hold till February 11.
Media officer of the team, Babafemi Raji, told our correspondent that both players were not part of the team’s second training session in Abidjan on Thursday. While Iheanacho was initially reported to have travelled with the team to Ivory Coast from Lagos on Wednesday, coach Jose Peseiro on Monday said the Leicester City forward was already in Abidjan, awaiting his teammates.
“Iheanacho will join us on Saturday and Moffi on Sunday,” Raji said.
Meanwhile, Sadiq, who is in Abidjan, did not train with the rest of the squad on Thursday, as he jogged alone on the sidelines, while Peseiro and his crew worked with the remaining 22 of the final 25 men, with Moffi not yet with the squad as well.
Raji also allayed Sadiq’s injury fear as ‘precautionary’.
Nigeria’s injury list has been growing since the Portuguese coach named his final 25-man squad.
Leicester midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, was the first to be ruled out and was replaced by Antwerp’s Alhassan Yusuf, while red-hot Bayer Leverkusen man, Victor Boniface, also picked up a groin injury before the end of the team’s one-week training camp in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Iheanacho’s involvement has been in doubt since he was named in the final 25-man squad, after Leicester coach Enzo Maresca announced he was nursing a muscle problem. But he hasn’t been replaced, unlike Ndidi and Boniface.
With the 27-year-old still doubtful and Sadiq half fit, Peseiro only has reigning African Player of The Year, Victor Osimhen, as the only fit striker.
Nigeria, who won the AFCON in 1980, 1994 and 2013, are in Group A with hosts Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. The three-time African champions will begin their quest for a fourth title on Sunday against Equatorial Guinea, before facing Ivory Coast January 18, while the last group game is against Guinea-Bissau January 22.
