Coach Justin Madugu has been compelled to pick replacements for forward Asisat Oshoala and midfielder Jennifer Echegini after the duo voluntarily opted out of the Super Falcons’ squad that is due to contest a 2024 Women Africa Cup of Nations final qualifying fixture against Cape Verde, with the first leg in Abuja in four days.
NFF’s Assistant Director (Technical), Abdulrafiu Yusuf, said the two players had been sent their flight tickets to travel to Nigeria a whole week before they announced on Saturday that they would be unable to join the squad.
“We were surprised that they had the flight tickets for so long and did not say anything, only for them to send different messages on Saturday that they would be unable to make the trip. However, Coach Madugu has moved swiftly to call up replacements for them,” disclosed Yusuf.
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Midfield lynchpin Halimatu Ayinde, who missed the 2024 Olympics qualifying fixture against Ethiopia last month, is still out injured, and forward Ifeoma Onumonu also requested to be left out, saying she is nursing an injury. Defender Michelle Alozie told the team administrator that she will be undergoing a surgery.
Madugu has called up Portugal-based Peace Efih to once again fill the space vacated by Ayinde, while Rivers Angels’ midfielder Motunrayo Ezekiel will take the place of Christy Ucheibe, who is unable to travel to Nigeria from her base in Portugal.
Nigeria U20 Girls’ ace forward Chioma Olise will take the place of US-based Echegini while Chiamaka Chukwu of Rivers Angels has been called up to take Oshoala’s place.
The Super Falcons will host the first leg of the fixture against their counterparts from Cape Verde at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Thursday, 30th November, with the second leg scheduled for the Santiago-Estadio Nacional Blue Shark in Praia on Tuesday, 5th December.
3 Comments
We are now seeing a gradual regression in our Super Falcons that will culminate into total disaster going into the Olympics. This is what those at the helms of affairs in Nigeria are only good at;destroy anything and everything good about Nigeria. May OUR LORD GOD intervene.
Mheen, the thing shock me o @Glory. I thought I was the only one observing the backward slide of the team both from the quality of the coaching to the team strength. The fat cow is growing lean steadily and can now be headbutted out of the way easily by even a goat on the African continent.
I just dey laugh as we dey carry AWCON and Olympic tickets dey play. Mind you, the very formidable Cameroun women are out of AWCON already and the wounded lionesses are lying in wat for our continuously depleting and wounded Falcons team in the Olympic qualifiers.
Besides, I’m equally sensing the girls are making an unspoken protest over the shabby treatment/dismissal of Waldrum by Gusau and his goons through the backdoor by making flimsy excuses to skip important games. Imagine almost 10 quality players requested to be excused. Oshoala and Echegini even ignored the NFF and their tickets for a whole week. Nah, this is planned. This one no be men o. Girls cliques dey strong gaan. Once they gossip and band together against a common enemy, the fellow or organization is gone! They probably have seen the technical acumen of Madugu and aren’t impressed. Nigeria, oh Nigeria, who do you this thing? Nah still village pipu????
Nigerians and their usual conspiracy theories and negativity…smh
First, what “regression”? The Falcons have only played one tie since the WC and won 5-1 on aggregate (1-1 away, after only 1 full training session, and a comfortable 4-0 at home). How many games did we win by such large margins before the WC (apart from the Equatorial Guinea friendly)?
Meanwhile, the nature of national teams is that players will drop out from time to time, because the list is usually issued well before the games, and therefore availability is dependent on subsequent injuries and other such factors. It’s not a situation that is unique to Nigeria.
It was known in ADVANCE that either one of Echegini or Abiodun would be UNAVAILABLE for the Cape Verde tie, because both of their teams were about to play against each other when the list was made, with the winner advancing to the NCAA College Cup finals from December 1-4.
Halimatu Ayinde is still recovering from injury and has missed all of Rosengard’s UEFA WCL group games thus far, Ify Omunomu was unavailable for the US NWFL Cup final and presumably has not fully recovered, Alozie is reportedly undergoing off-season scope, etc., etc.
PS: @Kel, so when Asisat was missing games left and right under Waldrum, what “unspoken protest” was she making? And how come the players that are currently in camp (Payne, Ajibade, Ohale, Nnadozie, Kanu, Okoronkwo, etc.) are not joining the so-called “unspoken protest”?!
Instead of getting behind the team, some Nigerians seem to be desperately looking for negativity – and are effectively devaluing the players that showed up in the process (not to mention the crude sexist stereotyping). SMH