Three players on the standby list submitted by Super Eagles’ technical adviser, Gernot Rohr have received official invitations to the Nigerian squad to battle Seychelles this Saturday at the restart of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Injuries to William Troost-Ekong and Ola Aina, as well as illness for Alex Iwobi left open three spots up for grabs in Rohr’s squad, and same number of players have now been called up to fill in from the standby log.
Consequently, Lokomotiv Plovdiv defender Stephen Eze, Luzern of Switzerland forward Blessing Eleke and NK Gorica of Croatia defender Musa Muhammed have been asked to report to Seychelles.
This is in contrast with initial permutations that the three possibles are led by Standard Liege of Belgium defender, Uche Agbo, who can fill in as both a defender and holding midfield, which could have made him an ideal alternative for Troost-Ekong.
That would have left no space for Eze, who is an out-and-out central defender, but Agbo has again been overlooked, just as it was when he was among the last set of players to be dropped for the World Cup in June.
On the other hand, there are straight forward openings for Mohammed as a full back alternative for Aina and Eleke to fill in for attacking midfield in the place of Iwobi, even as both had been widely tipped for regular invitations in the first place.
