Napoli forward Victor Osimhen has been ruled out of the senior national team of Nigeria first two games in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, OwnGoalNigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Osimhen picked up an injury during the Super Eagles 2-2 draw against Saudi Arabia, forcing him out of the 3-2 win over Mozambique in their second friendly game played yesterday.
He returned to Italy and after test it showed he will be out for a minimum of six weeks, effectively ruling him out of the Super Eagles game against Lesotho in Uyo and the game against Zimbabwe four days later in Harare.
Head coach of the Nigerian team Jose Peseiro isn’t losing sleep over his absence as he has faith in the other players available to him in attack, but his major headache is that they are mostly similar in their style of play with Victor Boniface, the only one suited to the role behind the striker in his favorite two man attack.
It explains why he is keen on having Ajax forward Chuba Akpom in the mix as soon as possible. He feels that role is the main strength of the Ajax number 10 as he scored 28 goals to emerge as the top scorer in the English Championship last season while at Middlesbrough.
He is yet to get going at Ajax with the club in turmoil but Peseiro has faith in what he showed last season and he is convinced that he will be a good addition to the team. However there is still no valid update on his nationality switch from England, where he was a youth international to Nigeria.
The last we heard was that the switch of being held up due to the fact that he hasn’t been issued a Nigerian passport yet.
Osas Mahawi
