With less than four days until the crucial 2026 World Cup qualifier against Rwanda, the Super Eagles have yet to get the required number of players for a full training session.
 
Saturday’s game against the Amavubi Stars is one that the Super Eagles must win if they still desire to be at the 2026 Mundial to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. But as of yesterday evening, only 15 players were available for training, as the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) officials said that they were expecting more players later in the evening.
 
That meant that the Super Eagles could only do light training and fitness exercises under the supervision of Chief Coach, Eric Sekou Chelle.
 According to the NFF, the team is expected to have a full training session this evening at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, which will host Saturday’s game.
 
Chelle is expected to address the press today to unveil his plans for the game and next Tuesday’s encounter with South Africa, which has the potential of being the group decider.
 
Among the players that arrived in Uyo yesterday were Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, Ola Aina, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Moses Simon, Chidozie Awaziem, Adebayo Adeleye and Benjamin Fredericks.
 
They joined the quartet of William Troost-Ekong, Amas Obasogie, Felix Agu and Raphael Onyedika, who arrived in camp on Monday. The NFF said that it was expecting Wilfred Ndidi, Frank Onyeka and three other unnamed stars to join the camp later yesterday.
 
Meanwhile, Rwanda, placed second behind leaders, South Africa, with eight points, arrived in the country yesterday. The Rwandan delegation arrived in Lagos yesterday afternoon and left for Uyo shortly after.
 
A Rwandan one-man advance party had earlier arrived in Lagos on Monday, but the full delegation came aboard a Rwandair Airlines flight at 1.15 pm, and proceeded to Uyo by 4.00 p.m.
 
The Matchday 7 encounter has become very crucial to both teams as they are both wide away from group leaders South Africa, who have 13 points (before FIFA decides on their use of an ineligible player in the win over Lesotho in March this year). Rwanda are second in the pool with eight points, same as Benin Republic, with Nigeria in fourth on seven points.
 
Lesotho have six points, with Zimbabwe propping up the table on four points.
 
Yesterday, Fulham’s new boy, Samuel Chukwueze, who was yet to hit the Super Eagles’ camp as at press time, assured Nigerians that he is fully focused on helping Nigeria secure maximum points in Saturday’s match.
 
Chukwueze switched to Iwobi and Bassey’s Fulham from AC Milan on a season-long loan, with an option to buy reportedly worth over €25 million. He told Fulham media that he is now focused on helping Nigeria to get the three points at stake.
 
“For now, I am just focusing on the game. We need the two games, Rwanda and South Africa. So, I think we have to win the two games to secure our World Cup ticket. Now I’ve secured this one (Fulham move), so I’m going to focus on getting the job done for Nigeria,” Chukwueze said.