Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr, has explained why he dropped Kelechi Iheanacho and Semi Ajayi from Nigeria’s 2019 Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) squad.
Okay.ng understands that the German speaking to newsmen shortly before the team’s departure to Egypt said that both players were conspicuously missing during the Eagles recovery training Sunday morning at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.
He also noted that they were still part of his team despite being overlooked for the AFCON tournament.
In his words:
“It was not the match against Zimbabwe that helped in our decision to drop the two players
“We already had our opinion before the match because we observed them throughout the season and we saw what they did.
“We had seven training sessions to see the fitness, confidence of the players. Normally in a match, you cannot bring so many strikers. We played with a lot of offensive players.
“We played with seven strikers, all the strikers who deserved to play. We started with three strikers, the others came in. We have (Samuel) Chukwueze, (Samuel) Kalu, Henry (Onyekuru), (Victor) Osimhen, Paul (Onuachu), (Moses) Simon also. The choice of dropping two players is really difficult for me.
“I can’t take every one of you (players) to the AFCON. All the players showed good character, good mentality throughout this week, but we just must drop two players. It’s so unfortunate and a difficult moment for Iheanacho and Ajayi missing out but they are still part of the team.”
