Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has named PAOK of Greece midfielder Anderson Esiti as a replacement for the injured Wilfred Ndidi for the September 10 friendly encounter against Ukraine, Completesports.com reports.
Rohr has also handed invitation to Bryan Idowu increasing the number of players invited for the friendly to 24.
The international friendly is billed for the Dnipro Arena, Kyiv, on Tuesday, September 10.
”Coach Gernot Rohr has called up @PAOK_FC of Greece Midfielder Anderson Esiti as replacement for injured @Ndidi25. Bryan Idowu has also been added to the list to make it 24 players for Ukraine friendly,” reads a Tweet on the official Twitter handle of the Nigeria Football Federation on Thursday afternoon.
Ndidi picked up an hamstring injury in Leicester City’s penultimate Premier League game against Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge where he netted the Foxes’ equalising goal.
He missed out on the club’s 2-1 away win at Sheffield United last weekend and is expected to spent few weeks on the sidelines to recover fully from the injury.
His replacement, Esiti has featured twice for the Super Eagles in the past.
The 25-year-old joined Greek champions, PAOK from Belgian outfit, KAA Gent last month and has already established himself as a key member of the side.
Idowu, who plays for Russian club, Locomotiv Moscow is making a return to the squad after over a year.
The 27-year-old has been consistently snubbed by Rohr since the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia for falling to feature regularly for his club.
By Adeboye Amosu
20 Comments
These chances don’t, n I mean don’t come often. Take this chance, don’t let it go.Sunday Oliseh only needed one chance to make that defensive midfield position his property. Pay deft ear to that tag ” most physical player on earth”. Football isn’t wrestling. Focus on techniques. You could easily be as good as you so desire.
Glory your comment wan kill me but it’s true Sha!
Hahahaha, Glory, Esiti looks more like a boxer or weightlifter. But the guy sabi play ball too. Hopefully, as you said, he will grab this opportunity with both hands, and even his feet. I have always expected much from him, so I’m happy he has his chance. With his skills and physicality, he should be a good option to have in the midfield.
And he plays in a country that are the Professors of the defensive game of football in Europe. Those who know,know. Welcome development for our team. Wish u d best Esiti.
Tribute to my wonder boy:
“I said here,this my wonder boy is not being protected enough by Rohr.Let me repeat Casemeiro,Fernandinho and Alan all crack nmba 4’s were used by Brazil dis summer to prosecute d Copa. The idea is to preserve them ALL.
Fact is Ndidi is blessed with such a beautiful body in terms of recovery,if not by d Nations cup,e for don breakdown.
He has not had a summer off since 2017.
In June and July, he was a virtual ever-present in midfield for Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, playing close to 600 minutes in all, and was not spared the exertion for even the Third Place play-off. In spite of this, he was straight back into the thick of things on the opening matchday of the season.
Now you would ask what of his club,can’t they pipe low? You recall the adage about two elephants fighting? National team coaches have wisened up and learnt to appeal to clubs but are willing to do more in terms of helping the players than clubs, for obvious reasons.That’s why a super-attacking team like Brazil went with 3 world class nmba 4’s.
Another stat. Solace Chukwu:
Lucas Torreira played roughly 140′ of football at Copa America. His 7-minute cameo yesterday was his first involvement this season.
Wilfred Ndidi played close to 600′ of football at the Africa Cup of Nations. He’s starting his second game on the trot for Leicester in 2019/20.
So Rohr wanted the boy to play against Ukraine? Me I don’t like headiness o. Infact this injury is “well deserved” and a beta blessing in disguise. This country does not lack(I repeat lacketh not) a veritable deputy to Ndidi. We didn’t go with one to the WorldCup and also the nations cup, is that not like criminal? How can we be looking for what is not lost.
Mr Rohr,over to you. That’s why I say the gaffer has grace working for him. Now his hands have been forced.Don’t be surprised that a reputable nmba4 is picked out(for they were not missing).His hands will just keep being forced one way on another.
Mr Rohr,not just Ndidi(tho I have a bias for him),protect all players by having proper competition for each shirt. Nigeria easily can afford that.
Biko ”
“defensive phase of the game”, I meant in that first paragraph pls.
Oge, very nice piece. We really need to protect our players by finding adequate cover in each position. We nearly killed Ndidi with football in the last couple of years. He deserves his rest. Hopefully, we can discover others who can deputise for him comfortably. One such player in my opinion is ZUBBY OKECHUKWU.
Zubby is surely the man.
Thank you @Pompei.
Exactly,for crying out loud. Yeah Zubby no doubt has the quality.
Let’s just hope Rohr plays these guys. The German has a reputation for inviting players for “invitation sake”.
The invitation of Idowu is a welcome development. The Niger-Soviet full back still has a lot to prove in national colours.
His shortcomings led to the search of more options which yielded Collins who has all but sent the Soviet born star to Super Eagles Siberia.
Now he has another opportunity to come out of the cold and warm himself to the hearts of Nigerian fans.
Good luck to him.
Nice poetry there sir.
Meanwhile just before the Esiti call up.
STAN:
“…that is just the truth. We have been telling nigerians the truth but they refuse to accept the truth. Gr is not klop or guadiola am suprise nff retain this man. Friendly match is to test new players he went to afcon with only 2 mildfielders ndidi and etebo and they were tired against cameroun and algeria. Inviting the likes of ndidi. musa.etebo.ekong.omeruo.ezenwa for ukarine was wrong this time to test new players the likes of ajayi.okereke.akpom.esiti.eze.nwaoloko.osigwe. K nwakal. Usman mohamed. we cant stop telling nff the truth till they get a better coach. God bls 9ja.”
MY REPLY:
O yes some of us cried out that the midfield was to thin.Now,Etebo too is still recovering from not just the physical but mental exertion.
Beautiful list u’ve suggested @stan.That’s the idea,try out some.Is the Ukraine friendly do or die? If you don’t try players now,when is the right time?
Well,let’s keep pouring in constructive criticism. We hope the gaffer will listen. At least for Ndidi he must play a clone of Ndidi if he doesn’t want to find players,players dat full ground remain.
Shhhh, Esiti is playing a crucial match RIGHT NOW that could qualify his club for Europe. Let’s gang up behind him with well wishes pls.You know the ripple effect of playing in such a competition can be good news for a countries national side.
A certain dangerous Chuba Akpom is in that first eleven too.Hope this big Greece team qualifies in the end.
Match is tough o. Esiti subbed now. C’mmon let’s nt relent.
No wonder,Rabiu Ibrahim in opposing side.hehe. He too was subbed.What contest.
Oh dear,match ends 3-3 on agg,but Rabiu’s team go tru on away goals.Sad.
But not totally because, that’s a Nigerian in the Europa league.
Indeed our players are recently beginning to be visible again in Europe.
Congrats Rabiu Ibrahim,I remember your silky touch.
Pls u can do that when take over the job Mr coach. mtcccheeew..
I would wait after the game against Ukraine before commenting again about Rohr and the super Eagles. I hope Esiti would not be committing physical fouls that could result into many penalties against us. As for our midfield situation I believed I ve said enough.
Anderson Esiti is a welcome development for the SuperEagles midfield. He’s the kind of player that can add steel to our midfield. He never really did badly whenever he’s called up to the SuperEagles. I don’t think he has a reputation for committing unnecessary fouls that could cause plenty penalties lol! A superb defensive midfielder who is also skillful. Hopefully he can take his chances this time.
Esiti looks like a boxer ready to fight Joshua. Hope he doesn’t go there to play jambody football and expose the fragile goalkeeper. good luck to him anyway.
Anderson Esiti as far as I know has not been disappointing the few times he was called upon in the national team and I do not see any difference this time around nor am I expecting something different as per improvement because he has not made a major headline in both transfers and club performances respectively,but has been consistently included in games for his clubs,which means we are expecting a very fit player in camp.
Meanwhile,regular international invitations can be decisive in a player career.Anderson is a good player but his non invitations to the national team in the past couple of years did his club career no good,whereas club mates like Kalu Samuel and Simon Moses has moved on to better things thank to the national team,unfortunately,the same cannot be said of Esiti,who needs to prove something in camp to enhance his chances to future invitations to the super eagles,what he needs to move to better things in club career.
Goodluck and welcome back to the super eagles Anderson Esiti.