Eagles not in crisis – Ezeji

Former Nigerian forward Victor Ezeji has said that the Super Eagles do not have a crisis in the attacking department despite injuries to two strikers as he believes the presence of Victor Osimhen is enough, Saturday PUNCH reports.

On Friday, Sadiq Umar was ruled out of the 2023 African Cup of Nations and replaced by Paul Onuachu. This is coming after striker Victor Boniface was replaced by Terem Moffi for the competition which is scheduled to start on Saturday (today) in Ivory Coast.

Umar picked up a knee injury in Nigeria’s 2-0 friendly defeat to the Syli Stars of Guinea on Monday and in a Friday statement posted on X by the official Super Eagles account, it was announced that Onuachu will replace the 26-year-old.

“Sadiq Umar is out of the AFCON 2023 squad due to injury and Paul Onuachu replaces him,” they wrote.

Onuachu was at the AFCON 2019 finals in Egypt. However, due to an injury, the 29-year-old missed the previous edition of the competition in Cameroon. In 15 games for Trabzonspor this season, the forward has scored nine goals and three assists.

The former Enyimba forward, who won two African Champions League winners, said that the replacements were good strikers and the wingers just needed to provide better chances.

“I don’t think there is a crisis, because the other guys they have called up are good strikers as well. It is just that the Super Eagles have not keyed into someone like Onuachu’s potential, he has a good height, and most of his goals are with his head, but anytime he plays with the Super Eagles, wide players like (Samuel) Chukwueze and Moses Simon fail to bring the crosses for him.”

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