The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has confirmed that Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo will not feature at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. This was revealed this morning by the NFF Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire in an interview with Brila FM.
Read Also: 2021 AFCON: Super Eagles To Depart For Garoua Today Via Charted Flight Recall that Ighalo was still expected to arrive the Super Eagles camp as at yesterday and was handed the number 9 jersey by Austine Eguavoen on Wednesday night ahead of the tournament. The veteran striker was widely expected to lead the Eagles attack in the absence of Napoli striker Victor Osimhen.
However, in a new twist, Olajire confirmed that Ighalo’s Saudi Arabia club, Al Shabab has refused to release him for the the bi-annual showpiece. “Al Shabab has confirmed that they won’t be releasing Ighalo for the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. “However, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will not go to that level of reporting Ighalo’s club to FIFA because you won’t be helping the player. “This was the same player that was invited for the 2022 World Cup qualifier against Liberia in Morocco and he was released.”
Source: CompleteSports