Gernot Rohr has said both Joe Aribo and Alex Iwobi are major doubts for today’s final AFCON qualifier against Lesotho in Lagos, but he will not make wholesale changes to the starting XI against Benin at the weekend.
Aribo missed training yesterday, while the result of Iwobi’s Covid test is still being awaited.
“Unfortunately we have a player missing (in training) – Joe Aribo. He has stomach problems. So, we are not sure he will play,” Rohr said after training at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
“We are also waiting the Covid result of Iwobi. If he is negative he can play, if not we will play again with Henry (Onyekuru) on the left side, like we did in Benin.”
Fans will want some of the fringe players on the squad getting a run today, but Rohr said he prefers to play his best team to begin preparations for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which begin in June.
“We will change a little bit, but I want to bring the best team because we are already preparing for the World Cup qualifiers,” he said.
“We hope to finish well these qualifiers, which we began since June 2017, we did not lose a qualifier and so we want to finish with a good victory.
“We won’t underrate Lesotho because they have a good defence, they made some draws in this competition and they don’t have anything to lose.”
