Victor Osimhen will not be playing a part in the friendly between the Super Eagles and Portugal on Thursday, the Nigeria Football Federation has announced.
The Napoli striker is injured and pulled out of the game, with Cremonese striker Cyriel Dessers called up as his replacement.
The NFF also confirmed today that Olisah Ndah is ruled out of the friendly, replaced by Chidozie Awaziem.
Osimhen will be a big miss as he is in fine form, scoring seven goals in his last six Serie A appearances since returning from an injury lay-off, including his first-ever club hat-trick against Sassuolo on October 29.
He is currently the top scorer in Serie A with nine goals from 11 games, and is Nigeria’s first-choice centre forward, with 15 goals from 23 appearances.
Osimhen also missed the friendly against Algeria in Oran in September with injury, and his last appearance for the Super Eagles was in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Sao Tome.
He scored four goals in the record 10-0 victory.
The friendly in Lisbon is Portugal’s last match before the Qatar 2022 World Cup, where they will face Uruguay, South Korea and Ghana, who incidentally prevented Nigeria from qualifying for the World Cup, which kicks off on Sunday.
