Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle has revealed that Victor Osimhen and Ademola will feature in next month’s high-profile international friendly matches with Poland and Portugal.
After the Unity Cup, the Super Eagles will take on Poland on Wednesday, June 3 before facing Portugal on Wednesday June 10.
Both Osimhen and Lookman were included in the squad for the friendlies by Chelle.
But speaking after guiding the Super Eagles to lift a fourth Unity Cup title, thanks to a 3-0 win against Jamaica in the final on Saturday, Chelle said the two former African Players of the Year will miss both fixtures due to different reasons.
“For now we have two games, Poland and Portugal and I have lots of problems because some players have visa issues, players like (Samson) Tijani and (Abdullahi) Yusuf,” Chelle said.
“But most importantly we miss two players because Victor Osimhen maybe he is about to change club so I prefer he stays at home because if he plays and is not at 100 percent is not good.
“For Lookman he is very tired and Atletico ask us to excuse him. We will travel with 18 players and we will see what happens after Poland and Portugal.
Looking ahead of the encounters, Chelle described it as a very good challenge for his players.
“We will go to the two games to fight and if we win we win and if we lose we lose. They (Poland and Portugal) have to work to beat us, Poland is a good team, Portugal maybe the best team in the world, so this is a great challenge for us and I want to go to their countries and beat them because I’m sad we wouldn’t be at the World Cup and maybe this would be something very good for me.”
Osimhen was instrumental for Galatasaray’s Turkish Super Lig title win, contributing 15 goals in 22 appearances.
Lookman, who only joined Atletico Madrid in the January transfer window, helped the Spanish club to the semifinals of the Champions League and the final of the Copa del Rey.
The UEFA Europa League title winner, scored four goals in 12 league appearances and bagged two goals, two assists after featuring in eight matches.
By James Agberebi
Be First to Comment