Coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr has called up Enyimba’s goalkepper John Noble as replacement for injured Francis Uzoho in the Super Eagles squad for the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Nigeria will take on Liberia on the 13th of November before playing their final games of the qualifiers against Central Africa Republic on the 16th in Lagos, they will have to navigate both games without second choice goalkepper Uzoho.
It means Daniel Akpeyi will step up to the role of second choice with newly invited Noble taking the position of third choice goalkepper despite the fact that he hasn’t kept a game in four months.
As a matter of fact since the coming of new coach Finidi George he has been relegated to the role of second choice, with new signing Olurunleke Ojo now the preferred choice in goal as seen in most of their pre season games and also CAF Confederation Cup games.
Furthermore Noble’s season ended prematurely as he picked up an injury which saw him missed the Super Eagles B team friendly game against México. His call up surely doesn’t tick the right boxes.
That he was preferred ahead of Hapoel Jerusalem goalkepper Adebayo Adeleye is also another issue of debate as the former Nigeria U17 goalkepper has shown that his form in the second division in Israel is no fluke.
Now in the top division, the 21 year old who was voted the best goalkepper in the second division has so far kept four clean sheets in nine games, where he has conceded just 12 goals.
