Adekunle Adeleke replaces Kenneth Omeruo for Benin and Lesotho games

Adekunle Adeleke has been called up to replace Kenneth Omeruo for Nigeria’s AFCON qualifier games against Benin Republic and Lesotho.

The Abia Warriors defender became just the third home based player called up by Gernot Rohr for the games.

Adekunle Adeleke was called up after Kenneth Omeruo revealed that his Spanish based club Leganese have refused to release him for the clash.

“My club refused to let me go. I won’t be coming to the game because of Covid,” the versatile defender declared.

Also, Enyimba’s Anayo Iwuala was called to replace Sadiq Umar who has been stopped by his Spanish club Almería.

Sadiq, who has been in brilliant scoring form for Almeria, was looking forward to making his debut for the Eagles after he was included in Gernot Rohr’s 24-man squad for the qualifiers.

But Almeria announced there were fears protocols put in place in the club as a result of COVID-19 may have been flouted, hence their decision to stop Sadiq from travelling for the qualifiers.

The statement translated from Spanish to English reads:”Due to the pandemic crisis that we are experiencing, due to the sars-cov-2 virus (COVID-19) and thoroughly evaluating all the impacts, we believe that the sanitary, security or bureaucratic conditions are not met, so that our player Sadiq Umar present himself to the call-up of the Nigerian national team.

“Therefore, based on article 3.1b of Annex 1 of FIFA RSTP, we have notified the player not to appear at the aforementioned call.”

Altogether, three home-based players have been called up for these games.

Goalkeeper John Noble from Enyimba who was included in the original 24-man squad, Abia Warriors defender Adekunle Adeleke and Enyimba’s Anayo Iwuala.