Osimhen, Awoniyi, Chukwueze’s return boosts Eagles’ World Cup plans

Nottingham Forest’s Nigerian striker Taiwo Awoniyi Photo: AFP

Contrary to fears in the Super Eagles’ camp that the trio of Victor Osimhen, Taiwo Awoniyi and Samuel Chukwueze would not be ready for Nigeria’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, reports in the players’ different clubs indicate that the forwards have returned earlier than expected.

Osimhen, who plays for Italy’s Napoli, has not featured in any of their last three fixtures across all competitions, owing to a hamstring injury picked up whilst on international duty last month. The expectation was that the striker would be out for about a month.

Everybody associated with Rudi Garcia’s troops were no doubt desperate for some positive news regarding the wellbeing of the club’s talismanic goal scorer.

Their fears were eased on Friday when Garcia said, ahead of Napoli’s clash with Salernitana yesterday, that he expects to have Osimhen at his disposal as soon as this week.

“The doctors manage and guarantee me that he is following the programme. He will be with us next week.”

The same is also true with Chukwueze, who is set to return to action earlier than expected following the latest update from AC Milan coach, Stefano Pioli.

Chukwueze, who was in the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup winning team with Osimhen, picked up a hamstring injury in the same international break and could only feature in the Super Eagles encounter with Saudi Arabia.

The injury also made him miss AC Milan’s league games against Juventus and Napoli respectively and was supposed to be out for at least a month.

But, with the latest information given by the Rossoneri boss ahead of his side’s encounter with Udinese yesterday, the Super Eagles forward has recovered earlier than expected.

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