Sports

FIFA World Cup Playoffs: Five Super Eagles Stars Arrive Monday, Bonke Replaces Injured Ndidi

The quintet of Super Eagles captain Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo, William Troost-Ekong, Oghenekaro Etebo and Emmanuel Dennis are the first set of players to arrive the country ahead of the crucial FIFA World Cup play-offs against the Black Stars of Ghana on Friday.

Thee three Watford players (Ekong, Dennis and Etebo) along with Ighalo, flew into Abuja from Lagos on Sunday night and will be in camp on Monday before lunchtime.

Other players expected in camp later on Monday are Cyprus-based goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, Semi Ajayi, Joe Aribo, Calvin Bassey, Leon Balogun, Abdulahi Shehu, Maduka Okoye, Victor Osimhen.

Meanwhile Lorient of France defensive midfielder Innocent Bonke has been called up by the technical cred of the Super Eagles as replacement for injured Leicester City’s Wilfred Ndidi.

Ndidi picked up a knee injury in Leicester’s Europa Conference League game with Rennes last week and has been ruled out of the games.

The Super Eagles announced the replacement on its official Twitter handle on Sunday, “Camp update: Innocent Bonke has been called up as replacement for injured @Ndidi25 for the #WCQ games against #Ghana. Get well quick Wilf.”

The first leg of the play-off will be played on Friday, 25 March at the same Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, while the second leg will go down on 29 March, at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.