Injuries deplete Nigeria's squad
LAGOS - Injuries have ruled out several of Nigeria's top players from this weekend's African Nations Cup qualifying match against Madagascar, a team official said yesterday." "Sunday Oliseh has called to say he is injured.
So also Victor Ikpeba and Victor Agali," team official Joe Erico told AFP.
"But we will have to make do with what we have.
We don't have a choice."
"The team official would not disclose the nature of the players injuries.
Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha who plays for French side Paris Saint-Germain as well as Finidi George of Spanish club Real Mallorca are also reportedly sidelined by injuries.
Eleven players from the local league left the country Tuesday night and are expected to train in South Africa before arriving in Madagascar.
Madagascar would normally be dismissed as no hoppers against the star-laced Super Eagles, but a shock 2-1 away win over Zambia in the first qualifying round last month confirmed the steady improvement of the islanders.
Unlike most African countries, the Malagasy cannot call on Europe-based professionals, relying instead on local amateurs and semi-professionals with clubs in neighbouring islands like Reunion.
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| The Nigerian Football Federation was
created in 1945. It was the first year that a competition was organised
bringing together clubs from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar. The championship
was also renamed the Challenge Cup replacing the Governor's Cup as it had been
known under their British colonisers. It was only several years later that the
Challenge Cup became a national trophy when other top clubs from different
provinces were invited to play. However, the clubs had to wait till 1990 for
the professional league to be introduced. Nigerian clubs have done well in the continental club competitions even though they haven't won the 'Blue Riband' event The African champions Cup. Shooting Stars Club (1976), Rangers Enugu (1977) and the BBC Lions (1990) have won the African Cup Winners Cup while Shooting Stars (1976) and Bencel Insurance (1994) won the CAF Cup. The national side claimed its first major trophy when they won the 1980 African Nations Cup in front of its own fans. They repeated their success in 1994 with a team made up principally of players who played for European clubs. 1994 also saw Nigeria compete in the World Cup finals for the first time. They finished top of their group in front of Bulgaria, who went on to be semi-finalists, and Argentina, before going down to Italy in the last 16 (2-1 in extra-time). Confirmation that they were among the strongest footballing nations came in Atlanta in 1996 when they captured the gold medal beating Brazil 4-3 in the semi-final and then downing Argentina 3-2 in the final. Because of these performances players like Victor Ikpeba (AS Monaco), Daniel Amokachi (Besiktas), Finidi George (Real Betis) and Daniel Amunike (Barcelona) are now justifiably part of the footballing aristocracy |
