NFF queries Peseiro for inviting ‘inactive’ players as 10 players arrive Uyo

Jose Peseiro

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has queried Super Eagles’ Manager, Jose Peseiro, for including inactive players in the 23-man list he invited for Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

Nigeria will meet Crocodiles of Lesotho in their first game of the qualifying series on Thursday in Uyo and fly to Kigali, Rwanda, shortly after for their second game against Zimbabwe.

According to owngoal.com, the NFF Technical Committee went through the list submitted by Peseiro and queried the inclusion of some players, especially Southampton’s Joe Aribo, who, it said, has been inactive in his club.

Aribo has struggled to get games at his English Championship, playing less than 10 minutes in their last four games and has shockingly played more minutes for the senior national team of Nigeria than he has at club level the past one month.

According to the report, Peseiro told the NFF that he constantly invites Aribo because his qualities are entirely different from the other midfielders in the team, adding that apart from Alex Iwobi, the former Glasgow Rangers star is the most attack conscious midfielder in the squad.

He assured the federation that he would be forced to drop Aribo if he failed to gain regular playing time at Southampton.

Meanwhile, 10 players have arrived at the Super Eagles Uyo camp ahead of the game against Lesotho.

The players include Kenneth Omeruo, Jamilu Collins and Sadiq Umar. Alex Iwobi, Taiwo Awoniyi, Francis Uzoho and stand-in skipper, Wilfred Ndidi were said to be already in Nigeria and were expected to hit Uyo later yesterday.

Also in that category, according to the source, were Kenneth Omeruo, Victor Boniface and Moses Simon.

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