Osimhen, Iheanacho Out as Eagles Battle Mozambique’s Mambas Today

Femi Solaja with agency report

Coach Jose Peseiro will be without Victor Osimhen and Kelechi Iheanacho as Nigeria battle Mozambique’s Black Mamba in Super Eagles second international friendly in Portugal.

Saudi Arabia’s late strike on Friday evening earned the Green Falcons a 2-2 draw at the same venue in Portimao.

“We will miss Kelechi and Victor, but we have other good players who can make Nigeria proud. I look at the bench and see players who can step up and take their chances,” observed the Portuguese gaffer.

The clash with the Mambas is the last gathering for the three-time African champions before the race to the 2026 FIFA World Cup begins, in which they host the Crocodiles of Lesotho and then fly to play Zimbabwe’s Warriors away, all within a few days in November.

In the absence of Iheanacho and Osimhen, Peseiro will have to cast his lot with Terem Moffi, Victor Boniface, Samuel Chukwueze, Sadiq Umar and Moses Simon, and hope that Alex Iwobi comes to the party in his playmaking role to supply ammunition to the forwards.

Nigeria and Mozambique have met four times at senior level, with the Super Eagles winning a friendly match in Maputo by a lone goal, before home-and-away 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches that remain fresh in the memory till this day.

While Osimhen has returned to his Napoli club in Italy for medics of the Serie A champions to find solutions to the hamstring injuries that forced him out of the Saudi Arabia friendly after just 55 minutes, Iheanacho has pressing personal family matters to sort out.

Osimhen too has domestic matters to solve in addition to his injury. His brother-in-law, Osita Okolo who is married to his sister released a string of tweets on Platform X, claiming that the Napoli striker has been tormenting him, using the instrument of government, the Directorate of State Security (DSS).

Osita, who has a long claim to commission in Osimhen’s transfer to Napoli, claimed in a video that the footballer employed the DSS to arrest his wife, who is Osimhen’s sister.

“You are evil! You sent the Department to harass and slap my wife. You will pay for this.”

In another tweet, Osita wrote: “You are evil…All I asked for is return my commission. You sent DSS to beat, molest, slap and strip my wife on the street of Nigeria. You will pay for this.”