{"id":65016,"date":"2025-12-07T20:28:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/okoye-set-for-afcon-duty-with-udinese-release-date"},"modified":"2025-12-07T20:47:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:47:06","slug":"okoye-set-for-afcon-duty-with-udinese-release-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/okoye-set-for-afcon-duty-with-udinese-release-date","title":{"rendered":"Okoye Set for AFCON Duty with Udinese Release Date"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong> <\/span>Udinese head coach Kosta Runjaic has confirmed that Nigerian goalkeeper Maduka Okoye will join up with the Super Eagles squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday, December 14, immediately after the club\u2019s Serie A fixture against Napoli.<\/p>\n<p>This comes in the wake of FIFA\u2019s revised directive earlier this week, announcing that clubs can release players for AFCON duty by December 15, a week before the tournament kicks off in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, clubs were expected to release players on December 8.<\/p>\n<p>Okoye, who has been in impressive form for Udinese this season, is widely expected to make Nigeria\u2019s final AFCON 2025 squad under head coach Eric Chelle.<\/p>\n<p>His departure will leave a notable gap in Udinese\u2019s set-up as they prepare for a congested winter schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Runjaic, speaking via the club\u2019s official website, acknowledged the challenge of losing multiple players to international duty but noted that the team had long anticipated the development.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re considering this issue. After Napoli, we\u2019ll probably no longer have Rui Modesto, Okoye, Bayo, and Zemura, but we\u2019ve known about it for some time,\u201d the Udinese boss said.<\/p>\n<p>The coach also provided updates on the squad\u2019s immediate availability ahead of their upcoming league matches.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKamara won\u2019t be available against Genoa; perhaps he\u2019ll return against Napoli.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re evaluating who to play on the wings, but it\u2019s something that will become a reality after the Napoli match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the Genoa match, everyone except Atta and Kamara is available.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Okoye will depart for AFCON duty shortly after the Napoli fixture, linking up with the Nigerian national team as they push for a strong showing in Morocco.<\/p>\n<p>The Super Eagles are expected to unveil their final tournament squad in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Lesotho<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Udinese head coach Kosta Runjaic has confirmed that Nigerian goalkeeper Maduka Okoye will join up with the Super Eagles squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday, December 14, immediately after the club\u2019s Serie A fixture against Napoli. This comes in the wake of FIFA\u2019s revised directive earlier this week, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":65015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-65016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Okoye Set for AFCON Duty with Udinese Release Date - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press - Lesotho. 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