{"id":153881,"date":"2025-03-04T10:18:09","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T09:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury"},"modified":"2025-03-04T10:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T09:18:09","slug":"2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury","title":{"rendered":"2026 WCQ: Boost for Chelle as Onyedika returns from injury"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Raphael Onyedika has handed Nigeria a big boost ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p>Onyedika was forced off Belgian side, Club Brugge\u2019s league clash with Standard Liege last month due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>The defensive midfielder was omitted from the matchday squad in the Belgian Pro League champions win over KAA Gent last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-old has now been named in the club\u2019s squad for tonight\u2019s UEFA Champions League clash against Aston Villa.<\/p>\n<p>The Round of 16 first leg encounter will hold at the Jan Breydelstadion.<\/p>\n<p>This should also be cheering news to the Super Eagles head coach, Eric Chelle ahead of must-win 2026 World Cup qualifiers later this month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Raphael Onyedika has handed Nigeria a big boost ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Onyedika was forced off Belgian side, Club Brugge\u2019s league clash with Standard Liege last month due to injury. The defensive midfielder was omitted from the matchday squad in the Belgian Pro League [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":153880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[10858,15590,254,8362],"class_list":["post-153881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-2026-wcq","tag-chelle","tag-nigeria","tag-onyedika"],"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>2026 WCQ: Boost for Chelle as Onyedika returns from injury - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2026 WCQ: Boost for Chelle as Onyedika returns from injury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Raphael Onyedika has handed Nigeria a big boost ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Rwanda and Zimbabwe. Onyedika was forced off Belgian side, Club Brugge\u2019s league clash with Standard Liege last month due to injury. The defensive midfielder was omitted from the matchday squad in the Belgian Pro League [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T09:18:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"2026 WCQ: Boost for Chelle as Onyedika returns from injury\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-04T09:18:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury\"},\"wordCount\":136,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741071555.263261.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2026 WCQ\",\"Chelle\",\"Nigeria\",\"Onyedika\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/2026-wcq-boost-for-chelle-as-onyedika-returns-from-injury\",\"name\":\"2026 WCQ: Boost for Chelle as Onyedika returns from injury - 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