December 15, (THEWILL) – Austin Eguavoen, the interim manager of the Super Eagles, has stated that he will most likely choose players from Gernot Rohr’s 40-man provisional list for Nigeria’s squad for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) next year in Cameroon.
The 33rd biennial AFCON kicks off on January 9 and the announcement of lineups from participating countries at the continental competition is imminent. After taking Gernot Rohr’s place as coach of the three-time African Champions, it became Eguavoen’s responsibility to decide the composition of Nigeria’s team.
However, before being fired, Rohr was in the process of compiling this squad and had delivered a 40-man provisional list to CAF in November.
Eguavoen has now confirmed the existence of Rohr’s tentative list, which will be of assistance in the final selection process that the Nigeria Football Federation’s Technical Director will initiate.
Speaking on the topic, Eguavoen said: “The list is out, and we’ve talked about it. The list goes to CAF, so it is from there we are going to see how we get the details back home. So it is that we are going to pick the players, the list Gernot Rohr submitted.”
But, the 56-year-old diplomatically refrained from being dragged into stating the objectives of the Super Eagles going into Cameroon. When asked, Eguavoen was evasive:
“I don’t think I wanna answer that because somebody is going to war, you’re asking the person what’s your objective in going to war. I think such a question shouldn’t come up.”
Nigeria’s continental campaign kicks off on January 11 with a Group D opening match against Egypt, followed by fixtures against Sudan and Guinea-Bissau on January 15 and 19 respectively.
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Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
