Super Eagles Coach Gernot Rohr announced on Sunday, the final 23-man list to play in the AFCON. Leicester City forward, Kelechi Iheanacho and Rotherham United’s Semi Ajayi were dropped from the preliminary squad of 25 players. Gernot Rohr has explained why he dropped them.
“You cannot judge from one game in these conditions. We already have our opinion before the match because we observed them throughout the season and we saw what they did and also all week in the training sessions. We had seven training sessions to see the fitness, confidence of the players. It’s not this match alone that will give us a decision on the two players (Kelechi Iheanacho and Semi Ajayi) we have to drop.”
”You see that we played with seven strikers, all the strikers who deserve to play. We started with 3 strikers, the others came in. Normally in a match, you cannot bring so many strikers. We played with a lot of offensive players. We have Chukwueze, Kalu, Henry, Osimhen, Paul, Simon also. The choice of dropping two players is really difficult for me.”
Semi Ajayi, who is a former Arsenal U23 skipper, has reacted to the decision. He posted on Instagram, ”Wishing my brothers the best of luck at the upcoming #AFCON2019. It’s been a privilege to have been part of this squad and as much as I’m gutted that I can’t make it I wish every one linked with the Super Eagles the very best of luck this summer. I will be supporting the team until the end. Go and make Nigeria proud my brothers ????❤️ S.A”.