Cyriel Dessers sent blunt Nigeria snub explanation as Rangers star told exactly why he isn't going to AFCON

Despite his recent improvement with Rangers, Cyriel Dessers won't be going to the African Cup of Nations with Nigeria - and boss Jose Peseiro has explained exactly why.

Dessers has been much-maligned for much of his short Ibrox career so far but he has recently begun to show signs of life. He scored a crucial goal against Real Betis and laid on an eye-of-the-needle assist for Ross McCausland against Kilmarnock at the weekend, signing off for the international break with 16 goal involvements in 30 Rangers appearances. And he had hoped that recent improved form would be enough to take him to AFCON having been a fixture of recent squads.

But he fell just short of the final 25 and Portuguese boss Peseiro has revealed why he didn't take the four-times capped striker to the finals. He said: "We could have taken 27 players, but the Federation decided to go with 25 and I agreed because it is easy to manage this number.

"We first came up with the 41 players, then the players who made the final list have been with us and they have shown good performance. For the ones who aren't in the final squad, there are players who showed good performance for their clubs, but didn’t do well in the national team. Also, there are players who do well for the national team and didn’t do well for their clubs.

"So we looked at current form, if they are playing well and showed good condition and came up with the final list. It was not easy to choose the 25 players, but it was my responsibility and I hope and pray they play well for us.“