Leganes of Spain defender, Kenneth Omeruo has been ruled out action with Nigeria’s Super Eagles in Sunday’s upcoming international friendly against Brazil, on account of injury, and the in-form dark-skinned stopper has already been replaced by equally injury-prone Benfica of Portugal right-back, Tyronne Ebuehi, megasportsarena.com reports.
Omeruo was injured while in action for Leganes, which means he wil no miss the second straight friendly for Nigeria, as the former Standard Liege of Belgium, ADO Den Haag of Holland, Middlesborugh and Chelsea of England as well as ex-Konyaspor and Kasimpasa of Turkey central defender withdrew from last month’s game away to Ukraine, in order to regularise his residence permit in Spain.
Girondins-Bordeaux of France winger, Samuel Kalu is also out of Sunday’s friendly in Singapore due to injury, while Glasgow Rangers of Scotland midfielder, Joe Aribo is in a race to be declared fit for the game, as he suffered a head injury in last month’s Scottish League Cup win over Livingston.
While Aribo hopes to feature in Singapore, despite The Gers’ manager, Steven Gerrard saying the former Charlton Athletic of England battler, who scored on his debut against Ukraine, will miss few games for the club, but Kalu has been ruled out of the friendly and there will be no replacement for the former KAA Gent of Belgium winger.
Omeruo, though, has been replaced by Ebuehi, who made his debut against Togo in June 2017 and has played eight times for the Eagles, with which he produced sterling performances in friendlies against Argentina, Poland, Serbia, England and Czech Republic as well as at Russia 2018 World Cup.
The 23-year-old Holland-born full back, who Ebuehi, 23, whose last appearance for the Eagles was at the World Cup, has now been included belatedly for the October 13 game against Brazil in place of Omeruo, after 15 months out with a cruciate ligament injury.
The Portugal-based player, who did not play a single match for the club he joined in the summer of 2018 due to injury, was also named for the friendly against Ukraine last month, but was forced to pull out with a muscle complaint, from which he is said to have fully recovered.
Ebuehi will now hope for a shirt and another top-grade performance for Nigeria against Brazil when both countries meet only for the second time at senior level, following a 3-0 defeat suffered at home by the Eagles in a similar friendly against the five-time World Cup winners in June 2003, to open the national Stadium in Abuja.
Eagles’ spokesman, Toyin Ibitoye told BBC Sport: “Ebuehi has been called up as a late replacement for the injured Kenneth Omeruo. He’s back to club action in the reserves and we hope this will be the start of an uninterrupted run for Tyronne.”
