Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr has given the biggest hint yet that many of his fringe players will have the chance to play for the national team when the Super Eagles face Algeria on Friday.
With Nigeria guaranteed a slot in next summer’s 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, their final qualification game against the Fennec Foxes has been reduced to a mere friendly in its significance.
Key members of the team including vice-captain Ogenyi Onazi and striker Odion Ighalo are two of the team’s senior players ruled out of the trip to North Africa and Russia.
“It is right that we have already qualified and the result is not the most important,” began Rohr to the Super Eagles Media Team.
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“The most important for this game is to make a good game because we always play to make good games and good results,” he added.
After Wednesday morning’s training session, it was confirmed that Bursaspor midfielder Ndubuisi Mikel Agu has joined the growing injury list and will miss the upcoming matches.
Turkey based midfielder Mikel Agu is out of our upcoming games against Algeria & Argentina owing to injury. We’ll miss him #SoarSuperEagles. pic.twitter.com/cM1y3KaCpU
— 🇳🇬 Super Eagles (@NGSuperEagles) November 8, 2017
Rohr is hoping to make the most of the injury situation and hints at the deployment of many of the players in the team’s periphery.
“It’s an opportunity to see a lot of players who didn’t play so much in the qualifiers because we had our team.
“Now, we have six injuries which means there will be at least six changes so we will see players who didn’t play so much,” he said.
Algeria will be managed for the first time by African football legend Rabah Madjer after he was named the team’s head coach last month.
“It will be interesting to play in Algeria in these conditions. They are changing the coach, they absolutely have to win at home because they haven’t won yet.
“They will be very aggressive, I know this team, they have some of the best players in Africa. Mahrez, Brahimi, Slimani and the other ones so it will be very interesting,” Rohr stated.
The Super Eagles have been camping in Rabat since Sunday and will leave for Constantine, venue of Friday’s game on the morning of Match Day.
