Super Eagles boss, Gernot Rohr has declared that the team would miss
one of the Nigerian internationals that could not make the trip to
Egypt as Nigeria aims to win a fourth continental title in North
Africa this summer.
Rohr submitted a 23-man squad to represent the West Africans at AFCON
and the omission of Kelechi Iheanacho was the hot topic of discussion
for several days. However, the german tactician has revealed that
Tyronne Ebuehi would be miss at the tournament as he is a good player
who offers a lot to the Super Eagles team.
The Nigerian defender Tyronne Ebuehi is currently signed to Benfica
and was unfortunate not to be included on the Super Eagles Africa Cup
of Nations roster after failing to fully recover from a cruciate
ligament injury he suffered in pre-season. The full-back ruptured a
tendon in a friendly game against Juventus few weeks after he shined
for Nigeria at the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
2013 AFCON winner Eddy Onazi and Joel Obi were part of the Super
Eagles’ squad that represented Nigeria at the World Cup but they also
missed the plane to Egypt because of their own injury problems.
However, Gernot Rohr reckons that the Dutch born wing back would be
missed the most. Although Ola Aina and Abdullahi Shehu are right
fullbacks, Ebuehi is a cut above the rest and that was obvious by his
performance before and during the World Cup.
Ebuehi played for the Super Eagles in all their friendlies before the
2018 World Cup ”The team is missing a good player, Tyronne Ebuehi, who
has been injured for months,” Rohr said in a press statement published
by filgoal.com. “The team has a young goalkeeper and two other
goalkeepers with good experience and they played well during the last
friendly against Senegal,” he added.
Last year, Rohr sent a fitness trainer to work with the former Holland
junior international. The full back was checked out by Super Eagles’
doctors before the team reconvened for the qualifiers game against
Seychelles. Rohr told a local website that his crew had been
monitoring all the players available for the national team with a view
to improving the level of the squad.
He said at the time, “it is a moment to monitor our players to see if
they are fit and of course have some news also from our injured
players. Tyrone has started training again but he can’t start
playing.”
The Super Eagles begin their AFCON campaign on Saturday, 22nd of June
when they play tournament debutants Burundi. Nigeria have been drawn
alongside Burundi, Madagascar and Guinea in Group B.
