AC Milan delays Chukwueze’s arrival as first batch of Eagles’ delegation departs for UAE

Samuel Chukwueze (Photo by AFP)

Super Eagles attacker, Samuel Chukwueze, will not arrive in the senior national team’s Abu Dhabi camp on January 2, 2024, as agreed by the players and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) because he has a game to play for his club, AC Milan, on that day in Italy.

According to sempremilan.com, Chukwueze is one of the two players that would leave AC Milan for the Africa Cup of Nations, the other being Algeria’s Ismael Bennacer. But while Algeria insists that Bennacer join their camp on January 2, AC Milan has managed to convince the NFF to allow Chukwueze to play their Coppa Italia game against Cagliari on the same day.

According to sempremilan.com, Milan will release Chukwueze to join the Nigerian camp on January 3, “meaning he is almost certainly going to feature against Cagliari. That would allow Pioli to rest Christian Pulisic or Rafael Leao on either wing.”

Meanwhile, a Super Eagles’ pilot team has departed for Abu Dhabi to prepare grounds for the arrival of the players and their officials at the training camp.

An official, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that all the players, including those already in Nigeria, have been issued flight tickets to UAE to arrive in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

He said the players in Europe will fly direct to UAE, while those in Nigeria will join the home-based delegation to the camp.

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