AFCON 2023: Super Eagles still formidable amid injury woes – insists Jose Peseiro

By Wale Mustapha

Head coach of Nigeria senior men’s national team, Jose Peseiro has insisted that his side posseses great qualities despite losing some key players to injuries for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, starting on Saturday in Ivory Coast.

The Super Eagles preparation for the AFCON has been disrupted by injuries to some of the key members of the squad, with Wilfred Ndidi first to be ruled out of the tournament due to ankle injury and followed by Victor Boniface before Umar Sadiq the recent.

The trio of Yusuf Alhassan, Terem Moffi and Paul Onuachu have been handed a late call ups to replaced the injured players as Nigeria aim to win their fourth AFCON title.

Ahead his side’s opening match against Equatorial Guinea, Peseiro maintained that the Eagles are still strong despite the set backs.

“It’s unfortunate that those players can’t be here with us; they all want to play, but they can’t because of injury,” the Portuguese said at the pre-match press conference.

“The good thing is that we have the players to replace them, It’s not much of a problem for us because we have picked players with the same profiles.

“Onuachu is similar to Sadiq, Moffi and Boniface are not different, same thing with Ndidi and Alhassan.”

Nigeria’s match against Equatorial Guinea is at 2pm Nigerian time at the Alhassan Outarra Stadium in Abidjan.