Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr has admitted a selection headache ahead of Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya in Uyo but insists only the fittest stars will feature.
Rohr’s Eagles are in a make or mar contest against the Mediterranean Knights and they regrouped on Tuesday in Uyo, venue of their World Cup qualification success in 2017.
There were new faces in the squad with the duo of Alex Iwobi and Moses Simon returning for the first time since the World Cup finals in Russia having attained full fitness from recent injuries while Watford’s Isaac Success returns to the squad after making his debut about eighteen months ago.
“It is wonderful that they could recover from their injuries, so now, we have a big choice to do because we have twenty four players and only eleven can play and eighteen can be in the list (match day squad),” said Rohr after the team’s training session on Wednesday.
“So, we will see in the training sessions who are the fittest ones to play and to start the game on Saturday.”
Rohr has a full complement of his invited players for Saturday’s game in Wednesday’s training session at the Training Pitch of the Godswill Akpabio Stadium. The three goalkeepers, Francis Uzoho, Daniel Akpeyi and Ikechukwu Ezenwa trained fully with the rest of the squad.
The former Gabon national team coach was satisfied with the session which was watched by fans and he states that the team will go into more tactical practice on Thursday.
“It was a good training session today, fresh air, good pitch and it was already the fourth training session because we started not with other players, on Monday and we did two on Tuesday and one on Wednesday morning at the Golf Course.
“On Thursday, we will start tactical training for the difficult game against Libya,” added the Franco-German.
News from Libya have it that coach Adel Amrouche has quit his job and the national team will be led to Nigeria by Omar Al-Maryami. Rohr believes the development does not change anything about Saturday’s game.
“It doesn’t change anything. We have seen the team in videos, they are a good team and could have won in South Africa.
“The coach can change but they are the same players and it will not be an easy game because sometimes it is more difficult that a new coach is coming because everybody wants to show what he can do.”
Nigeria’s game against Libya will hold on Saturday at 4pm local time here at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.
Fisayo Dairo reporting from Uyo
