{"id":57188,"date":"2022-01-10T15:19:10","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T14:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa"},"modified":"2022-01-10T16:09:21","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T15:09:21","slug":"afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa","title":{"rendered":"AFCON 2021: Strikers\u2019 absence major blow to Super Eagles \u2013 Julius Aghahowa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Nigerian striker, Julius Aghahowa, has said that the absence of Odion Ighalo and Victor Osimhen remains a major blow to the Super Eagles ahead of their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, opening tie against Egypt on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Aghahowa disclosed this in an interview with Brila FM, where he expressed displeasure with the absence of the two strikers from the tournament, adding that the opportunity lies on Taiwo Awoniyi and Sadiq Umar to prove themselves at the 2021 AFCON.<\/p>\n

Ighalo, whose Saudi Arabian club, Al Shabab, didn\u2019t permit his participation in the tournament, joins Osimhen to miss the showpiece in Cameroon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a blow to the national team that Odion Ighalo could not make it to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. And also, the other player (Victor Osimhen) that didn\u2019t make it is also a blow for us. But as it is, we have to make do of what we have at the moment,\u201d Aghahowa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose players are professionals and they are playing in their teams in Europe. And that is what is expected of them when you are called to represent your country, you have to give in your best.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to prove that you are worthy of that call. So now, the opportunity lies on the shoulder of Taiwo Awoniyi and Sadiq Umar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nigeria are in Group D alongside Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Sudan.<\/p>\n

World Cup qualifiers: We can\u2019t move forward like this \u2013 Julius Aghahowa blasts Super Eagles<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Former Nigerian striker, Julius Aghahowa, has said that the absence of Odion Ighalo and Victor Osimhen remains a major blow to the Super Eagles ahead of their 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, opening tie against Egypt on Tuesday. Aghahowa disclosed this in an interview with Brila FM, where he expressed displeasure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[5907,1570,2140,6403,254,453],"class_list":["post-57188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-afcon-2021","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-julius-aghahowa","tag-nigeria","tag-super-eagles"],"yoast_head":"\nAFCON 2021: Strikers\u2019 absence major blow to Super Eagles \u2013 Julius Aghahowa - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Nigerian striker, Julius Aghahowa, has said that the absence of Odion Ighalo and Victor Osimhen remains a major b ...\" \/>\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\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AFCON 2021: Strikers\u2019 absence major blow to Super Eagles \u2013 Julius Aghahowa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Nigerian striker, Julius Aghahowa, has said that the absence of Odion Ighalo and Victor Osimhen remains a major b ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-10T14:19:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-10T15:09:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/img-61dc4bffc30b6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"827\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\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\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"AFCON 2021: Strikers\u2019 absence major blow to Super Eagles \u2013 Julius Aghahowa\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-10T14:19:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-10T15:09:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa\"},\"wordCount\":266,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2022\/01\/img-61dc4bffc30b6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AFCON 2021\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"Julius Aghahowa\",\"Nigeria\",\"super eagles\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/afcon-2021-strikers-absence-major-blow-to-super-eagles-julius-aghahowa\",\"name\":\"AFCON 2021: Strikers\u2019 absence major blow to Super Eagles \u2013 Julius Aghahowa - 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