Maduka Okoye will start in goal for the senior national team of Nigeria when they take in Sierra Leone in back to back AFCON 2021 qualifiers games next month.
Nigeria will take on Sierra Leone in Benin City on the 13th of November before traveling to Freetown for the reverse tie on the 17th of same month. Four points from the two games will seal Nigeria’s spot at the tournament.
Ahead of the game Gernot Rohr has called up 24 players including three goalkeepers in Maduka Okoye , Daniel Akpeyi and Sebastain Osigwe but Osigwe is feared out of the tie after testing positive for coronavirus.
One of the duo of Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Francis Uzoho will replace the shot stopper if it’s confirmed that he won’t be honoring his first call up to the senior national team of Nigeria due to the virus.
Already coach of the team have settled for Okoye to continue in goal after his impressive performance in the last three games he has played for Nigeria. He was particularly impressive against Algeria and Tunisia respectively during the last international break.
Rohr is set to stick with the 21 year old who also marked his first team debut for Sparta Rotterdam with a display that left many asking for him to continue in goal despite the fact that they lost the Cup tie to ADO Den Haag.
The idea to stick with Okoye informed the decision to leave out Uzoho , the anointed first choice but he could be set for a return following the situation of Osigwe as said above.
Even if Uzoho is drafted in from the standby list, Okoye will still keep goal in both games barring a last minute situation beyond the capacity of the technical crew.
