SSC Napoli of Italy striker, Victor Osimhen could not take part in full training with the Super Eagles on Wednesday, but had to make do with personal recovery drills alongside West Bromwich Albion of England defender, Semi Ajayi and SC Paderborn of Germany left-back, Jamilu Collins, megasportsarena.com reports.
Osimhen, Ajayi and Collins were restricted to individual recovery drills considering that they arrived at the Eagles’ camp in Benin City earlier in the day, and the technical crew promptly separated them for light workout, but Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa goalkeeper, Daniel Akpeyi was still missing.
While Akpeyi was the only invited player being expected as at Wednesday night at the Eagles’ camp in Benin City, Osimhen heaved a sigh of relieve that he eventually arrived after getting a change of flight ticket from Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) following a hitch in his initial booking.
Consequently, Osimhen, Ajayi and Collins did not train with the group, but had personalized training steps to recover from their tedious flights, but they will aim to be fully involved when the Eagles train again on Thursday and for the last time before facing Sierra Leone the following day.
The only player now in doubt for that game is Akpeyi, who missed Wednesday’s full training session and was not among the 23 players present at the stadium, thereby giving rise to speculation that his place in the squad might have been taken by previously uninvited Heartland of Owerri shot-stopper, Ikechukwu Ezenwa.
Based on Wednesday evening’s session, Sparta Rotterdam of Holland keeper, Emil Maduka Okoye looks set to edge ahead of Ezenwa and FC Lugano of Switzerland’s Sebastian Osigwe to make the Eagles’ starting line-up against The Leone Stars.
Ezenwa took part in the initial drills but was instructed to stay out of the subsequent training game, thereby suggesting he is ranked third choice behind Okoye and Osigwe, while Akpeyi, who had been in goal for the first two AFCON 2021 qualifiers against Benin Republic and Lesotho last year, looks likely to watch Friday’s game from the stands at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium.
