Super Eagles Arrive Morocco for São Tomé & Principe without Ekong

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Only Deputy Captain, William Troost-Ekong, was missing as Super Eagles flew out of Abuja midnight to Morocco ahead of Monday’s AFCON 2023 second Group A qualifier with Sao Tome & Principe.

The Watford of England defender injured his groin in Nigeria’s first Group A match against Sierra Leone last Thursday at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja. Eagles laboured to a not convincing 2-1 victory in Jose Peseiro’s first competitive match since taking charge. They will need an outright win with wide margin  at the Stade Adrar in Agadir, Morocco tomorrow for Nigeria to leapfrog Guinea Bissau who took command of the group with a 5-1 wallop of São Tomé.

Media Officer of the Super Eagles, Babafemi Raji confirmed to THISDAY before flying out with the team that Ekong has not recovered from the groin injury he sustained against Sierra Leone.

Surprisingly, it was minnows São Tomé that claimed an early lead through Eba Viegas, but were ultimately out-gunned by the Djurtus  (Guinea Bissau) over 90 minutes.

Seleção dos Falcões e Papagaios (The Falcons and True Parrots Team as the São Tomé side is known), have never qualified for the AFCON finals before. Their attempt to reach the 2021 finals saw them finish bottom of a group which included Ghana, Sudan and South Africa.

In head-to-head terms, this will be the first meeting of Sao Tome & Principe and Nigeria at the senior level.

Before traveling out of Abuja last night, Eagles trained behind closed doors to journalists and fans in the morning.

The three-time African  champions opened their campaign with a somewhat nervy 2-1 win over Sierra Leone with strikes from Alex Iwobi and Victor Osimhen. It was not the most convincing performance from the Super Eagles, but they got the job done and put three points on the board – an important marker in a year in which they stumbled out of the AFCON finals at the last 16 stage in Cameroon and failed to qualify for the World Cup scheduled to hold between November and December in Qatar.