March 21 is exactly 20 days from today and injuries have struck key Super Eagles players to further cripple an unbalanced team. Of course, this won’t be the best of times for the team’s Head Coach Eric Chelle who has the mantle to guide the Super Eagles back to winning ways beginning with the March 21 away games in Kigali against Rwanda, fails to deliver. Nigeria has only three points and has not won a game. Rwanda has seven points, beating Nigeria at home in Uyo. A win for Rwanda again could spell doom.
The names of the injury-hit Super Eagles players are frightening, leaving Chelle with the unsavoury option of fielding boys who wouldn’t be as experienced as the injured lads. West Bromwich Albion’s Semi Ajayi, was subbed off after 41 minutes of their 2-0 win over Oxford United, with early diagnosis saying that he suffered a relapse of the injury that kept him out since November last year. Ajayi is out. Super Eagles captain and chief motivator who rallies his men to victory, William Troost-Ekong has been sidelined by an undisclosed injury. Ekong was substituted in Al-Khalood’s 0-2 loss to Oruba a week ago and was also missing in action in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Al-Wehda. Perhaps, this is Chelle’s opportunity to find a capable replacement for Ekong who on Tuesday hinted that AFCON 2025 may be his last.
According to Ekong: “So, it’s hard to find that balance because, during tournaments like that, it’s so intense because there are emotions (people upset, someone sad if he’s not playing, something goes wrong..) so I felt you have to be consistent, or not do it at all.
“I probably will bring it back for the next one *because it’s probably going to be my last and I also just want to have it for memories and show them to my children,” Ekong stated on Tuesday. Ekong’s resignation call rings so true with a lot of Super Eagles players. I only hope that the oldies in camp emulate Ekong so that Chelle can truly rebuild the team for the good of the beautiful game. Interestingly, A source close to the player revealed that he was back in England over the weekend to celebrate his daughter’s fourth birthday. He is not at risk of a suspension and there was no word about his health status, though.
Ekong and Ajayi have formed a very reliable central defence pairing just as they have struck an almost impregnable shield for goalkeeper Francis Nwabali. Who are the standby goalkeepers for Chelle? Certainly not Okoye, who has been ruled out of Chelle’s plans due to club inactivity. Indeed, Okoye had allegedly been accused of infringement in betting rules according to his Italian club, Udinese FC. Udinese’s management went further to deregister Okoye, though other news sources have hinted that the Nigerian may, after all, not be guilty. It remains to be seen if Okoye will come out of this mess with the expected clean hands.
Can we rely on shaky Francis Uzoho? Or would the coach parade two home-based goalkeepers as Nwabali’s deputies? Who are the home-based goalkeepers? Thank God the country’s CHAN side recently completed a campaign in which Nigeria edged out her Ghanaian counterparts. So, the goalkeepers can be drafted to the Super Eagles for Chelle and his other European tacticians to work with and make their independent decisions on which of them can deputise for Nwabali, in the unlikely event he gets injured during the March 21 cracker against Rwanda in Kigali.
But will Chelle roll the clock backwards to invite Leon Balogun and Kenneth Omeruo? Certainly not. They are in the kind of form that would compel the coach to take the risk with them. The Rwanda encounter is a must-win game, not one to gamble with by fielding half-fit stars.
Nottingham Forest’s right-back Ola Aina is easily the best Nigerian in Europe. No prize for guessing right that his place in the all-conquering squad to Kigali on March 21 is secured. The other Nigerian Calvin Bassey, and two domestic league players could form a solid back four to protect goalkeeper Nwabali from conceding cheap goals are Calvin Bassey (Fulham), Igoh Ogbu (Slavia Prague), Gabriel Osho (Auxerre), Nduka Junior (Remo Stars) and Onyebuchi Ifeanyi (Enugu Rangers).
Dear Coach Chelle, if Ekong is ready to play in the Rwanda game he should be fielded, but only after getting a clearance from the team’s medical crew. The Rwandans are very athletic and energetic to last 120 minutes. One only hopes that our players don’t suffer much from the altitude problems in Kigali.
Watching Wilfred Ndidi play against West Ham on Thursday on television, it was clear that he wasn’t fully fit, as his shots were fickle and unable to trouble the Hammers’ goalkeeper. Ndidi played for the Foxes but his contributions to the team’s play were far and wide apart as the dentition of a centurion.
Yes, the coach is in big trouble except Ndidi’s form improves in the next 16 days. Otherwise, Chelle would have to rely on Onyeka and Onyedika to function in the holding midfield role with Alex Iwobi being the midfielder spraying defence-splitting passes to the threesome of Ademola Lookman, Victor Osimhen, and Moses Simon. My heart skipped a beat when Fulham’s coach didn’t field the two Nigerians in his team against Wolves in an away game on Wednesday. What crossed my mind was that they might have been injured, since they have been a regular part of the team’s successes this season. Fulham’s coach eased my fears when he revealed on Thursday in a post-match media interview that he knowingly benched them for tactical reasons. I hope so, otherwise we are done for in Kigali.
The Rwandans are the leaders on the table with seven points and won’t be a stroll in the park, having beaten Nigerians in Uyo in the first leg game 2-1. Our players must roll up their sleeves to fight as if their lives depend on a positive outcome from the game, otherwise, the country’s flag won’t be hoisted among the comity of nations at the 2026 World Cup. The Rwandans are beatable but this feat would only be achieved if everyone associated with the trio to Kigali does theirs optimally.
It is exactly 20 days to the Rwanda game in Kigali, and the government does not take the issue of the players, coaches, and backroom staff being owed huge sums of money in hard currencies lightly. If there is any form of logistics group from the Presidency to ensure that Nigeria qualifies for the 2026 World Cup, the time for such a group to begin their job is now. It isn’t enough for the team to be flown to Kigali on a charter flight costing the country N200 million, yet not qualified for the 2026 World Cup because we had disgruntled players and coaches angling silently for their entitlements.
We shouldn’t wait until we have been eliminated from the competition for us to start probing what went wrong. Those who think we can rescue our World Cup dreams from its melancholy should stop at nothing to achieve it. And the time is time is now. Or what do you think, dear reader? You tell me.
