By Updater
Nigeria national team coach Jose Paseiro has named his 23-player squad for November’s FIFA World Cup qualification matches vs Lesotho and Zimbabwe.
Since its release on Thursday evening, people have noted the exclusion of the Italian-based duo Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwuze due to injury lay-off.
Osimhen, the Napoli striker suffered a knock in Nigeria’s 2-2 draw against Saudi Arabia last month. AC Milan’s Chukweze’s injury was announced by the Milan club. England-based Wilfred Ndidi is also absent due to the same reason.
The latest list includes a new invitee, Nathan Tella, while Jamilu Collins returns to the squad alongside Maduka Okoye and Sadiq Umar.
Super Eagles will begin their quest to earn a place in the 2026 World Cup when they host Lesotho on November 16 before flying to Rwanda to play Zimbabwe at the Huye Stadium in Butare three days later.
Zimbabwe has adopted Rwanda as its home turf for the qualifiers, as no stadium in the country was deemed fit to host the FIFA World Cup qualifying games.
The 2026 World Cup is billed to be jointly hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico. The tournament will be the largest edition of the World Cup, with 48 teams set to participate — an expansion from the previous 32 participants.
There will be nine automatic qualification slots for African countries, with one guaranteed a play-off route to the tournament.
Nigeria was drawn in Group C of the qualification round alongside South Africa, Benin, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho.
African football
Lucky van Rukundo