Rohr dispels Ideye, Balogun, Shehu Abdullahi injury worries

• Team departs for Uyo today

Super Eagles’ Technical Adviser, Gernot Rohr, has assured Nigerians that Leon Balogun, Brown Ideye and Shehu Abdullahi, who did not train with the rest of the team yesterday morning, will be ready for the country’s crucial Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier against Algeria in Uyo on Saturday.

Rohr described as minor the injuries that kept the trio out of the training session, saying that they were excused from the exercise as a precautionary measure.

He said Balogun and Abdullahi has minor knocks, while Ideye is nursing a slight knee injury, which would be alright by today.

“We came for light work out today just for the players to recover after weekend games and long travels and as you can see, only three players are still being expected to join the team and hopefully all of them will join us this night. As for the three who did not participate fully in the training this morning, it is not important injuries, we are only taking precautions.

“They will be ready to train tomorrow, the doctor has assured me, so there is no problem with the team. We shall start full training tomorrow morning and I am confident that every of the invited players will take part. We are gearing up and the players are aware of the task,” he told the press corps at the end of the session.

The Franco-German assured Nigerians that the Super Eagles will be ready to battle Algeria to submission, that task would be made easier if all stakeholders worked together for that purpose. “We are preparing to play Algeria, who are ranked number one in Africa and you all know it is not going to be easy. But we confident and we shall be ready for them. We have our game plan and hopefully, we shall get the three points on Saturday,” he said.

The arrival of Portugal-based duo of Dele Alampasu and Oghenekaro Etebo yesterday brought the number of players in camp to 22.