The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau has said the Super Eagles will perform well without the services of injured midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
It will be recalled that Ndidi, a key player in Peseiro’s squad was replaced by Royal Antwerp player, Alhassan Yusuf after sustaining an injury ahead of the Super Eagles AFCON 2023 campaign.
Gusau said in an interview on the NFF’s website yesterday that the team could perform well even without the Leicester City midfielder.
“I don’t have any tension because I know we played a lot of matches without Ndidi and won many matches without him.
“We also played a lot of matches with Ndidi and lost unexpectedly, so it’s not about Ndidi, it’s about the national team of Nigeria,” he said.
Gusau however expressed confidence in Yusuf’s contributions to the AFCON campaign, citing his impressive performance against FC Barcelona as a positive indicator.
“The young boy that was brought in now, Yusuf is also doing wonderfully well with his team. When they played against Barcelona, you can see the performance he put on in the win against Barcelona in the Champions League. He’s also a young boy, maybe it’s an opportunity for him to do a miracle.
“Don’t forget everybody did not have confidence in Mba when we went to the AFCON in 2013 and at the end of the day, Mba was part of the players that performed a miracle. Nobody knows what Yusuf is going to be in the team so it’s not about Ndidi, it’s about the Super Eagles,” the NFF president said.
It will be noted that the Super Eagles are scheduled to face Guinea in an upcoming preparatory match before heading to Cote d’Ivoire for their AFCON campaign.
