Super Eagles manager, Gernot Rohr, has said that Nigeria would miss the services of Victor Osimhen, in the friendly against Algeria tonight in Austria as well as on October 13 against Tunisia.
Nigeria and Algeria will clash at the Worthersee Stadium, Austria, today from 7:30pm Nigeria time.
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The Napoli summer signing, Osimhen, was originally named for the friendlies, but could not report for international duty after Napoli players were ordered into quarantine following three positive COVID-19 cases.
Rohr however, noted that Racing Genk duo Paul Onuachu and Cyriel Dessers, Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho and Al-Nassr’s Ahmed Musa, could fit into the shoes of Osimhen who has been involved in 67 per cent of the goals scored by the Super Eagles post-AFCON.
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“The absence of Osimhen is of course very important because he is the goalscorer, the leader of the attack, he’s doing well in the last games not only with us but with his new club but we miss him of course.
“That can happen also in competitions so we have to organise a replacement. We called Onuachu who is scoring at the moment a lot of goals for his club Racing Genk, we also have Dessers who is a new player for the first time, we also have Kelechi working hard in training sessions and there are other strikers like Musa and the wingers we have.
“We have to handle his absence, we regret but we cannot change it,” Rohr said on Thursday at a pre-match press conference.