Oghenekaro Etebo has been ruled out of the Super Eagles friendly games against Algeria and Tunisia due to injury, Completesports.com reports.
The Nigeria Football Federation confirmed Etebo’s absence in a statement on their verified Twitter handle on Monday.
According to the NFF, Etebo sustained the injury while featuring for Galatasaray in their loss at Kasimpasa in the Turkish Super Lig on Sunday.
Also Read: Friendly: Algeria Unleash Mahrez, Benrahma, Feghouli On Super Eagles
The NFF wrote:”Super Eagles midfielder Oghenekaro Etebo is out of the friendly games against Algeria and Tunisia. He picked up a knock in his club’s game in Turkey yesterday.”
Also, Victor Osimhen will not be in action against the North Africans after he was excused due to Coronavirus concerns at Napoli.
The former Lille striker has since been replaced by in-form striker Paul Onuachu.
Ruled out also are Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and Joe Aribo.
The Eagles will face the reigning African champions Algeria on 9th October and will take on Tunisia on 20th October with both games taking place at the Jacques Lemans Arena.
By James Agberebi
12 Comments
It’s a blessing in disguise though for the newbies to have a great opportunity to show what they can offer to the team.
Meanwhile,Azeez should be called up because we are light in the midfield with three regular midfielders unavailable against two strong African sides in games that will play a significant impact on the next fifa rankings.
Apparently Rohr said hes not replacing him…now we have very few midfielders available….Rohr has his reasons I’m sure
Indidi, Osimhen and now, Etebo.
This is becoming interesting. We all know what those 3 can do so may be another player can rise like Aribo this time too. from the midfield now, we have Mikel Agu, Onyeka, Tijani then Ajayi who can play the role very well.
..I trust Rohr, he’ll know what to do.
etebo should forget about the national team for now .this will be his last invitation cause his never serious when it comes to national team assignment,
It is ok.
ANOTHER GOOD NEWS FOR NIGERIA. WE HAVE ADEQUATE REPLACEMENT NOW. UNLIKE B4 WE NORMALLY CRY WHEN D LIKE OF OKOCHA,OLISEH,YEKINI GET INJURED. BUT NOW,HAVE INJURY AND RISK UR POSITION FOR LIFE IN SUPER EAGLE.
I wish Etebo a speedy recovery. What did Azeez do to Oga Rohr? Azeez is way ahead of Agu and co in terms of everything.
Azeez is a rock, intelligent and smart that every manager should have but the gaffer is killing Nigerian talents because of his inexperienced of the game.
Now, Etobo is not available for the friendlies and we have so many options to choose from, let’s wait and see.
This is quite interesting. At the goal post, who will man the post between Alanpasun and Okoye?
Among the strikers in the team, who will lead the attack, the supporting striker?
I want to see if the gaffer have improved himself after the world and Afcon.
For you the followers of the gaffer, keep the blabbing coming and backing your world class coach the way you want but if the man deserves the praise or not, we are about to testify to it on Friday and Tuesday.
What I can say is to wish Oga Rohr the best.
We shouldn’t be worried about the absent of any player. We have capable replacements for them. God bless Nigeria!!!
@Omo9ja, this is a friendly match and the purpose of friendly match is to test new players and not to test the coach. You can test the coach in a competitive match but in a friendly match he is willing to change the known for the unknown, or the experienced for the inexperienced. And so if he brings an inexperienced goalkeeper and we get whipped 4:0. You know that the match has achieved its purpose, because it becomes clear who not to invite next time.
So if you want to test Oga Rohr if he has improved, better wait for November matches, that will be a better yard stick to measure our progress. But this matches is really going to show the depth of our squad. This is my thinking.
@Ikeben school him pls. This guy is becoming more and more boring. This is not an African nation or world cup qualifying match. Am not happy that this guys are injured but honestly its good others have a look in. Supposing all the players are fit some of the guys may not have opportunity to showcase their skills. Some people questioned why onuachu was not invited earlier but now he has another opportunity to prove that he’s ready to remain in the fold. Even if we lose which I don’t hope for heaven will not fall. The earlier this controversial omo9ja realise this the better for his general wellbeing.
Hahahahaha….he wants to test the coach with the highest win ratio ever for the SE with friendly matches, the coach who has taken us 41 laces up the FIFA ranking in 4 years (averg of 10 places per annum)…….LMAO. Na classwork the coach bin dey do b4….na now e wan give am semester test…LMAO.
Maybe he was in comma since 2016 when the coach was engaged.
@omo9ja.
Well known & recorgnise 4 spewing thrash & talking senselessly.
B4 it was NWAKALI, now it’s AZEEZ.
U were one of those that wailed & gnashed teeth 4 MIKEL AGU to be invited, now u have shifted ur attention to another.
How many games has your world best, fast, speedy, over experience DM(AZEEZ) played 4 an average team like GRANADA in laliga?
This shows that u don’t even know the quality in most of our players if you say azeez is fast & speedy.
Stop hyping a below average player as if he is GUEYE or THOMAS PARTEY or KEITA or NDIDI or even KESSIE…. Bcos as far as africa is concern, these are the BEST DMs in this part of the continent presently.
Others are just average…. Infact; some are even below average like your DM(azeez).
If i may ask, how many DMs should be invited for just a friendly game?
The hatred u hav 4 rohr is beyond human imagination, but the God of the INNOCENT foreigner would surely fight 4 him.
Keep wishing him bad, u would be surprise when those things bounce back on u.
One thing about ROHR is that he does proper scouting alongside his scouting team before inviting any player to the SE. I remembered when he first invited ARIBO against Ukraine when Ndidi were unavailable, I was among those that said ARI..what, but the young man won our hearts with his doggedness and style of play. SIMILARLY, I have no doubt that they have done their home work with ONYEKA and TIJANI before inviting them ahead of an indecisive and slow AZEEZ, besides AJAYI is a very good DM as well
Its just a friendly, and new stars and tactics will be tested
The next inline to be invited is MICHAEL OLISE, once again ROHR reiterated last week that he got a better player in EJARIA and doesn’t need an EZE