Super Eagles’ coach, Gernot Rohr is sweating over the fitness of Villarreal of Spain winger, Samuel Chukwueze and Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure, ahead of this Tuesday’s reverse fixture against Sierra Leone in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Megasportsarena.com reports that, although both forwards made the trip to Freetown with 20 other players, ahead of the clash at Siaka Stephens Stadium in Freetown, Rohr admitted he might not be able to count on them to be part of the upcoming reverse fixture.
It is a game Rohr will desperately want to win, after his side gave up a four-goal lead to settle for an embarrassing 4-4 draw during the first leg at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Friday in Benin City, such that all Nigerians have their hearts in their mouths heading into the second leg.
The Franco-German coach is already also without SSC Napoli of Italy striker, Victor Osimhen, who suffered a shoulder injury minutes after scoring in the first leg and has already has flown back to his base in Italy.
West Bromwich Albion of England defender, Semi Ajayi will also have to be careful in Tuesday’s game, as he was booked against Lesotho and a yellow card against Sierra Leone would see him suspended for the next match.
Nonetheless, Ajayi and all other players in the squad were upbeat, as Rohr lined the lads out for a recovery session on Saturday at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium and then trained at same venue the following day, but Chukwueze and Bonaventure were left out to recover from their knocks.
Rohr confessed: “The two players I took out were injured. Balogun had a little knock but he is okay. He did a little training with the team, it’s not painless but he will be okay.
“Dennis had a little injury in the last training session, his ankle is swollen and he cannot play, he can only run, and Chukwueze has a pain in the groin and could only work in practice today but we hope to get him back for the next game.”
