Gernot Rohr has lamented he will have to “completely change” the Super Eagles as he will be without as many as nine players mainly from the Premier League and Scotland for next week’s World Cup qualifier in Cape Verde.
Cape Verde is on the UK Red List as per Coronavirus travel restrictions and as such Premier League clubs have decided not to allow their players play there.
This means that Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City), Alex Iwobi (Everton), William Ekong, Oghekenaro Etebo (Watford) as well as Leon Balogun, Joe Aribo (Rangers) will be missing in Cape Verde.
“We are preparing the team as best as possible, but we will not have these players who are some of our best players,” Rohr told ESPN.
“It is a big challenge for us to replace nine players from our first list and to find in a few days only the players who can, with a good level, replace them.
“So they will be here for one game and then we have to change completely the team. But we have to handle and manage the situation that is why we are all the time positive about the possibility to see some new players like Innocent (Bonke), like Kingsley Michael, like (Chidera) Ejuke.”
