England Premier League side Chelsea have provided evidence to proof that Victor Moses who skipped Nigeria’s qualifiers against Zambia is injured.

Moses withdrawal from the Nigeria game raised eyebrows among football loving Nigerians, as the 25 year old has a record of skipping international games in the past.

Alongside Isacc Success of Watford, they both withdrew from Nigeria’s World Cup qualifiers against Zambia, less than a day after they featured for their respective club side.

However, while Watford is yet to release any evidence to proof that Success was indeed injured in the midst of claims, that he failed to honour the game because he was asked to buy air ticket. Chelsea have released proof to suggest Moses was injured.

A video of players who didn’t travel for international game in training was posted by the club on their website and, in the video Moses wasn’t in training with John Terry, David Luiz and Cesc Fabregas heavily involved.

The non-appearance of Moses in the video is enough evidence to suggest that the winger is indeed injured as claimed.

Turkish top division league leaders have shed more light on the future of Super Eagles defender Musa Muhammed, following the recently concluded round of international games.

The 19 year old dropped from the starting line up in Nigeria’s 2-1 win over Zambia in Ndola, has not made a single appearance for the Turkish side since joining them over a year ago.

However, within that same period of time, he has played three times for Nigeria, twice in friendly games and once in competitive game.

According to a statement on the official website of his club done for their players away on international duty, the club said Muhammed has been in Nigeria since the 3rd of September since Nigeria’s dead rubber AFCON 2017 tie against Tanzania.

Further confirmation of the report is in form of pictures of the former Nigeria U-17 and 20 captain observing the Sallah celebrations which took place in the middle of last month.

Former Nigeria international goalkepper Emmanuel Babayaro says Wolverhampton Wanderers shot stopper Carl Ikeme, is more technical between the sticks for Nigeria than erstwhile captain and former number one Vincent Enyeama.

Enyeama quit the Nigeria national team last year after a row with former Super Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh and, since then Ikeme has taken over his spot as the number one shot stopper for Nigeria.

Despite the fine performances of Ikeme, new coach of the Super Eagles Gernot Rohr confirmed he is still in talks with Vincent Enyeama over a return to the senior national team of Nigeria.

However Babayaro, shortly after seeing Ikeme post another man of the match performance for Nigeria in their 2-1 win away to Zambia in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers, believes the English Championship based shot stopper has more techniques behind the sticks than the Lille of France man.

” Am not saying he is better than Enyeama but in certain areas, Ikeme is more refined and those are key areas. The training Ikeme received at a young age naturally puts him ahead of Enyeama, who got to where he is now by sheer determination and hard work ” He told Owngoalnigeria.com.

” Ikeme has more techniques than Enyeama, for instance he is quick off his lines, has better foot works and above all has great positional awareness which means he doesn’t need to do more in terms of diving to make a save. Let’s not forget his reach as well due to his height”.

The Serbian coach of Algeria Milovan Rajevac has said his side will approach their next game against Nigeria with tactics and probably different players from the ones who were held to a 1-1 draw by Cameroon yesterday.

Rajevac disappointed by his side 1-1 draw says he will change tactics and, probably hand fresh call ups to some players when they play group leaders Nigeria in their next game.

“If we replayed the game again I would make some changes in the starting lineup. I have to watch the game again to understand the reason for our dip in form after leading.

“We will try to call-up the applicable squad for the Nigeria game, who are leading the group. We will face a difficult opponent in Nigeria. We will make use of Cameroon’s draw and work not to repeat our mistakes in the coming games,” He said.

The former Ghana manager said, the need to avoid making same mistakes that cost them victory against Cameroon, will most likely see him change tactics for the Nigeria tie as well as hand call ups to some players not invited for their first game.

Nigeria are now top of group B in the CAF World Cup 2018 qualifier following their 2-1 win over Zambia away in Ndola. Algeria will next play Nigeria on the 12th of November in Uyo.

Head coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria Gernot Rohr deflected questions on the international future of Victor Moses and Isacc Success, shortly after Nigeria defeated Zambia 2-1 away in Ndola.

The German coach was asked about the duo after their failure to honour the invitation sent to them for the game, on the grounds of being injured.

However skeptics have pointed out that the duo deliberately skipped the game, and if true it could see them lose their national team spot for the foreseeable future.

” For now I am so proud of the players who are here with us, they did very well to have picked up all three points in a tough game like this. I will prefer to speak about them”. He said

” We will beef up the team in attack, the boy (Etebo) in Portugal who scored four goals at the Olympics is still very much an option, we also expect Leon Balogun to be fit for our next game”.

The captain of the Zambia National Team Ranford Kalaba has sent an apology to the nation over their 1-2 loss to Nigeria in the World Cup 2018 qualifying series.

“I want to apologize to the soccer fans and the entire nation because I missed a lot of chances and we had chance to score a number goals in the first half. Am disappointed but I think it is one thing that the Coach and I will look at as we prepare for the next encounters.”

He added that Zambia respected Nigeria so much in the first half of the game and the belief came out positive especially in the second half.

“We didn’t start so well in the game, we allowed too much space for Nigeria to play in our half. A case of showing them too much respect from the start, when we recovered, it was a little bit too late”.

The decision to start Wilfred Ndidi ahead of Musa Mohammed has generated debates in Nigeria especially as he was preferred ahead of Shehu Abdullahi who has also played as a right back for the Eagles.

Ndidi who is predominantly a central defender during his days with the various arms of Nigeria Youth teams, the Under-17 and 20s precisely have been converted to a defensive midfielder by his Belgian side.

Playing him as a right full back in an important game like the World Cup qualifiers between Nigeria and Zambia caused a lot of concerns for football loving Nigerians.

However shortly after the 2-1 victory we gathered that, Rohr went for Ndidi ahead of Musa and Shehu due to his marking abilities as opposed to the attack minded duo who have played in the position in the past.

Nigeria needed to keep things tight at the back and, Rohr noticed Ndidi marks better and doesn’t give out fouls around the edge of the box than most defenders in the team.

Aside that his aerial abilities in defending set piece in training won Rohr over, as the manager drilled his defenders on how to defend set piece from which they expect Zambia to threaten prior to the game.

Alex Iwobi celebrated his first goal for Nigeria in a classic way shortly after the Super Eagles 2-1 win over Zambia in Ndola in the qualifying series for the World Cup in 2018.

Iwobi scored Nigeria’s first goal in the 31st minute before Kelechi Iheanacho doubled Nigeria’s lead in the 41st minute, which rendered Collins Mbesuma second half goal for Zambia, a mere consolation.

After the game, an excited Iwobi joined the rest of the players in a post match celebratory picture to celebrate the victory which helped the Eagles to a winning start.

The 20 year old Arsenal forward, posed behind the back of all of the players with both arms in the air, apparently standing on a height which made him taller than the rest of his teammates.

Security operatives at the Abuja International airport failed to arrest Chairman of the League Management Company of Nigeria (LMC) Shehu Dikko upon arrival from Zambia.

Dikko arrived with the Super Eagles last night into the waiting hands of about five security operatives who were armed with guns and handcuffs to whisked him away.

However, the combined effort of Minister for Youth and Sports Solomon Dalung and the president of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick stopped the plain clothes operatives from arresting Dikko.

Dalung was pushed to the wall by the operatives as despite making it known to them that he is a serving minister, the operatives were still hell bent on arresting the LMC boss, which infuriated
the minister.

An angry exchange between him and the men sent to arrest Giwa, lead to one of the operatives firing shots into the air, when Pinnick and Dalung mobilised against them.

The failed attempt to arrest Dikko is reportedly related to the contempt of court charge against the League Management Company (LMC), when they refused to stop the league despite a court ruling in favour of expelled Giwa FC.