Super Eagles captain John Mikel Obi will play no part in Wednesday’s AFCON 2019 Third-Pace encounter against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia after picking up an injury in training, reports Completesports.com.
Mikel has featured in two of Nigeria’s six games so far at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in which, and he didn’t complete 90 minutes on both occasions.
He picked up a knee injury in Nigeria’s third group game against the Barea of Madagascar and was initially ruled out for the rest of rhe competition.
But the former Chelsea midfielder recovered in time from the setback and made the bench in Nigeria’s semi-final defeat to the Desert Foxes of Algeria.
“Mikel picked up an injury in training yesterday and could not train with us. He is not likely to feature against Tunisia, ” Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr told reporters on Tuesday.
“He has played two games already and has a good tournament as well. We must remember there are people who participated in the qualifiers but are not here. He is here with us because he accepted to come to the AFCON without any preconditions.”
The team’s defender Chidozie Awaziem will also miss the game due to suspension.
Awaziem picked a yellow card late in the game against Algeria which effectively ruled him out of Wednesday’s encounter.
The Tunisia-Nigeria Wednesday’s Third-Place match will take place at the All Salam Stadium, Cairo. The kickoff is 8pm, Nigerian time.
By Adeboye Amosu (pix: by Ganiyu Yusuf) in Cairo
3 Comments
Its a pity that Awaziem will miss the third place match. He came in for the injured Abdulahi and grabbed the chance with two hands. He happened to be one of our strong dependable defenders in this tournament. Good luck in the years ahead.
Lol, for all those clamouring for Mikel, Mikel this and Mikel that, can you all see how conveniently he is again “injured” as soon as the SE are out of the main running and now playing in the mickey mouse 3rd place match?
For those of you who like being led like goats please shine your eyes very wella!
Thank God that we have finally gotten over the Mikel era. Hallelujah!
So what is the point of bringing mikel and dropping ajayi then.