Preparations begin in earnest as a total of 18 players have arrived at the Super Eagles camp ahead in Abuja of Nigeria’s 2022 World Cup play-offs against Ghana on Friday, with eight more expected.
The new arrivals are Omeruo, Jo Aribo, Calvin Bassey, Innocent Bonke, and Emmanuel Dennis.
Leicester City forward; Kelechi Iheanacho, defenders; Leon Balogun, Semi Ajayi, Shehu Abdullahi and Ola Aina, midfielder; Frank Onyeka and goalkeepers; Francis Uzoho and Daniel Akpeyi arrived on Monday.
Others are captain Ahmed Musa, Saudi Arabia-based striker Odion Ighalo and Watford trio William Troost-Ekong, and Oghenekaro Etebo, who were the first players to arrive at the camp on Monday morning.
Eagles interim coach Austin Eguavoen had released a provisional list of 32 players, with 25 on the main list, while seven more were placed on standby. The 25-man main list is expected to be pruned to 23 before the qualifiers.
It is still unclear if newly invited Ademola Lookman will be available for the encounter, having missed Leicester’s 2-1 win over Brentford due to illness on Sunday, with his club teammate Iheanacho arriving camp without him.
Another Leicester player Wilfred Ndidi had already been replaced by Lorient’s Innocent Bonke, after the Foxes midfielder suffered a knee injury last week.
The camp opens in Abuja on 21st March, with a 24 –man final list for the two big games to be released at a later date.
Nigeria take on Ghana in the 20,000- capacity Cape Coast Sports Stadium as from 7.30pm on Friday 25th March, with the reverse leg set for the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja on Tuesday, 29th March as from 6pm. The winner over two legs will earn one of Africa’s five tickets to the 22nd FIFA World Cup finals, scheduled for 14th November – 18th December this year in Qatar.
