Benin Republic are facing a crisis in defence ahead of their 2025 AFCON qualifiers game against Nigeria at their adopted home ground in Cote d’Ivoire, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Gernot Rohr the head coach of the team will be without influential first choice defender Cédric Hountondji who is presently injured. He received further bad news during Tuesday training session ahead of the game on Thursday.
Rohr announced after the session that Olivier Verdon will not take part in the game against Nigeria in addition to David Kiki who isn’t fully fit yet after returning from a two months injury lay off.
“We are missing key players but we will do without them. In the axis we would have liked to have Cedric and Olivier with us but they are not there” , he said before explaining the situation with Kiki.
“Kiki is still a little short to resume right away. He has been injured for two months but he has regained his health” . So there is great uncertainty”, the coach said.
It leaves the coach with only Mohamed Tijani as his regular starter in central defense, and even in midfield they will be without Matteo Ahlinvi, who could have been an option to help out in defence.
