Afcon2023: Onuachu to replace injured Umar Sadiq Terem Moffi’s arrival to be delayed

Super Eagles fringe player and Trabzonspor striker, Paul Onuachu will now take the place of injured Umar Sadiq in Nigeria’s squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Sadiq sustained a knee injury in Nigeria’s friendly defeat to Guinea on Monday which has effectively ruled him out of the competition.

Onuachu was initially named in Nigeria’s provisional 40-man squad for the Afcon but failed to make the final cut.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will now have to wait for the approval of his Turkish club, Trabzonspor before forwarding his name to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The 29-year-old missed the Afcon 2021 finals with injury.

The lanky striker was part of the Super Eagles squad that came third at the AFCON finals hosted by Egypt.

Sadiq has been ruled out for at least three weeks. He has returned to Donostia-San Sebastian to continue his recovery, and he will be assessed by Real Sociedad’s medical team. It’s not ideal for the Basque side to have suffered another injury, but the likelihood is that Sadiq would have missed the same amount of time, if not longer, due to his participation at Afcon, so it’s not terrible for them.

Elsewhere, OGC Nice were dealt a blow when striker Terem Moffi received a last-minute call-up to Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) squad. However, as revealed by L’Équipe, Moffi’s departure will be delayed.

Moffi, who has had a mixed season for Nice, had initially missed out on a call-up to Afcon However, due to an injury to Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface, Moffi was ultimately selected and Les Aiglons must now do without him for multiple weeks.

However, Moffi will only join up with his international teammates after Nice’s Ligue1 match against Stade Rennais on Saturday night. The Nigerian forward could miss as many as four matches for Nice, should his side make it to the latter stages of the tournament.

 The absence of Moffi has been partially mitigated by the arrival of Mohamed Ali-Cho from Real Sociedad. The France youth international is capable of playing through the middle or down the right. Francesco Farioli will, however, see his options limited after the Rennes match with Jérémie Boga also at Afcon and Sofiane Diop and Badredine Bouanani both injured.