By John Essien
Super Eagles gaffer, Gernot Rohr has revealed that the next World Cup qualifying match against Cape Verde would be difficult, with his UK based players leaving for their respective clubs.
A total of nine foreign-based players to including; Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Alex Iwobi, Oghenekaro Etebo, William Troost-Ekong, Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun will miss Tuesday’s clash against the Blue Sharks, after helping the national team overcome Liberia in their opener on Friday in Lagos.
The UK-based players were stopped from playing against Cape Verde by the UK government’s COVID-19 restrictions.
Cape Verde is one of the countries in the UK ‘red list’ and according to the rules, individuals traveling in from the ‘red list’ countries are meant to undergo a 10-day quarantine period.
With that in mind, the German tactician who has predicted a tough encounter at the island of Mindelo, will depend on his available players to produce the desired result in an ‘extremely different condition’ from the Liberia game.
Iheanacho was the hero of the match, as his brace handed the Eagles a perfect start to their campaign.
“Nine players are leaving, but it’s not all the team, Rohr said in an interview posted on the social media page of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). It’s not easy to build another team within two days and to play on a synthetic pitch. It’s another side of the extreme situation, having played on a very heavy grass after the rain, and now to a dry synthetic pitch.
“Another condition and a different team; we have to build another defence and midfield. It’s a challenge, but we have to show our solidarity. We still have 20 players for the trip to Cape Verde.
“We have to manage the situation. But I’m optimistic that the team will put up another good performance, even if we expect a tougher game than what we had today,” Rohr added.
The rest of the Eagles’ squad will travel to Cape Verde on Sunday night for Tuesday’s clash with Cape Verde.
The Super Eagles tops group C with three points, and are trailed by their next opponent Cape Verde after they played out a 1-1 draw with Central African Republic.
