FC Twente of Holland right-back, Tyronne Ebuehi has received a an official confirmation of his inclusion in the Super Eagles’ squad that will play two international friendly matches this month against Algeria and Tunisia, as he steps in for injured Leicester City of England midfielder, Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi, megasportsarena.com reports.
Ebuehi had initially been named among five players on stand-by for the October 9 and 13 games billed to hold in Austria and, while initial speculation had been that either Ramon Azeez from Granada of Spain or Shehu Abdullahi from AC Nicosia would be called up to replace Ndidi, Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr has opted for the new signing at Twente instead.
Ebuehi will now be setting his mind on a spirited return to the Nigerian national team, for which he starred at the 2018 World Cup in Russia just five months after switching allegiance from Holland, with which he starred at youth level, and he is on course to don the green-and-white once again, after Rohr affirmed that the former ADO Den Haag of Holland lad takes Ndidi’s slot.
Ndidi had already been among the 25 players called up for this month’s games, but an injury he copped during action for Leicester, when they beat Burnley 4-2 in the previous weekend’s EPL future, ruled him out of the upcoming games, and Rohr has now confirmed that the 24-year-old former Nath Boys of Lagos and Racing Genk of Belgium ace has already been replaced by Ebuehi.
The Franco-German gaffer went on to admit that he and his team will miss Ndidi, who is likely to be out for six to 12 weeks with what was diagnosed as an abductor injury, and he had to receive surgery on the complaint last weekend; thereby making way for Ebuehi, who last featured for the Eagles against Iceland during the 2018 World Cup, when he went on in place of Brian Idowu.
However, the 24-year-old defender soon started a long battle to save his career, after he copped a cruciate knee ligaments during pre-season training with Benfica of Portugal, which he joined immediately after the World Cup, and the setback prevented him from playing any match for his club and the Nigerian national team, even when Rohr gave him a call-up last November.
That is now all behind him, as he moved on loan from Benfica to Twente last month, then went on to feature in three matches on the trot at the start of the Dutch Eredivisie season, such that his return to action in the country where he was born has paved the way for his Eagles’ recall.
Rohr admitted the development is a big blow to his plans for the upcoming matches, but he had to resort to an alternative plan after holding discussions with the inured midfielder, and he told ESPN: “Tyronne will replace Ndidi in our team from the standby. We will miss (Ndidi) so much. I have spoken to him, of course. He must be patient now and take his time to get well.”
