Nigeria’s coach for Osimen: “He asked me to remove him from the Africa Cup”

Victor Osimen is one of the most reliable African strikers to play in the top European leagues this season, but Nigeria will be out of the upcoming Copa Africa as the 23-year-old Napoli striker is out at the last minute and his position becomes 28th taken by Henry Oniekourou of Olympiacos.

However, his discharge from the mission was not arbitrary, with the Nigerian national coach, Augustin Eguavoen, to claim the player himself “forced” him not to count on him for the tournament, telling him he was not fully ready at this point after an injury and coronavirus that attacked him may be.

“You have to understand that I’m not doing well, I don’t want to go to the Africa Cup and don’t give 100%. He told me that. It’s a shame we don’t have him with us.” The Nigerian coach emphasized in his statements to “NFF TV” and added:

“In essence, he was begging me not to include him, and I could understand the reasons. We spent hours trying to find the solution. When we talked, he seemed disappointed.

I asked him several times to think about it, but the situation remained the same. “Osimen will need to check the condition of his injury (he recently hit his cheekbone). We finally decided to take him off the mission.”