An explanation on why Innocent Bonke of Ligue 1 side Lorient wasn’t included in the Super Eagles 23 man list for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers games against Guinea Bissau has been revealed to OGN.
Nigeria will take on Guinea Bissau in back to back AFCON qualifiers games starting from the first tie on the 24th before the reverse tie away three days later. Both teams have already made public the list of players for the game.
Bonke was said to be a part of the team per a release by his club on their players who will be involved in international games during the break but his name wasn’t on the list when it was made public by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
It is the second time his club has posted about his invitation but missing when the NFF official make public the list of players for games and it forced us into writing a report, and it drew a response from the authority concerned.
A top official of the NFF speaking on the condition of anonymity said there was nothing sinister in his omission from the final 23 man list for the games, explaining that he was part of the initial 34 man provisional list before it was pruned down to 23.
“Bonke was on the provisional list of 34 players which entails we inform all the clubs 15 days before the start of the FIFA window and then u pick ur final 23 as the case may be and decided upon by the head coach “, he explained.