Two Days To Crucial World Cup Game, Ighalo, Noble Yet To Hit Eagles Camp

Two Days To Crucial World Cup Game, Ighalo, Noble Yet To Hit Eagles Camp By Niyi Busari Newly invited goalkeper, John Noble and returnee, Odion Ighalo are the only two invited players yet to report to the Super Eagles camp in Tangier for Saturday’s crucial match with Liberia. The match is crucial as Nigeria may eternally pick the group’s ticket if they beat Liberia and if Cape Verde fail to beat Central African Republic in the Matchday 5 series. Napoli forward, Victor Osimhen, who took over from the internationally retired Ighalo joined the rest of the team on Wednesday. It is not known yet if Ighalo has declined the last minute invitation. It was in similar vein 40 years ago that the last stage of Nigeria’s qualifying games for Spain ’82 was bungled when already retired Christian Chukwu was brought back and array of four other offshore players – Andrew Atuegbu, Thompson Usiyan, Christian Nwokocha and Tunji Banjo – were brought in, leading to the destabilization of equilibrium in the squad. Nigeria lost the 10 October 1981 match in Lagos before losing the return leg match in Constantine. The arrival of Osimhen Wednesday morning according to the official Instagram page of Super Eagles increased the number of players in camp to 22 leaving the absentees to two. On its part, home based and Enyimba goalkeeper, John Noble who was called up to replace Francis Uzoho is yet to join other players in Tangier, Morocco ahead of Saturday's World Cup qualifier game against Liberia. For Osimhen, who was part of Napoli’s 1-1 draw with Verona last weekend, in a short video clip posted on the team’s official page joined the rest in the gym and was part of the full training. It was reliably gathered that should Ighalo fail to report to camp as expected, Gernot Rohr is set to retain the attacking formation of former Eaglets World Cup winning duo of Osimhen and Kelechi Iheanacho in the starting lineup while the former U-17 World Cup winner is already set to team up with Paul Onuachu as the back-up or late substitution.