Super Eagles interim coach, Austin Eguavoen, says he is not sure if he will remain as the coach of the senior national team after qualifying the team for the 35th Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
Eguavoen has delivered on the NFF mandate to qualify Nigeria to the 2025 AFCON after sealing the team’s spot at the tournament with two games to spare.
Today, the Super Eagles welcome Rwanda to Uyo in a final Group D game in the 2025 AFCON qualifying series and there are talks over his future with the team as Nigeria look forward to resuming the qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup in March 2025.
Responding to questions on his future with the team in a pre-match conference ahead of his team’s clash against Rwanda in Uyo, the former Eagles captain said, “World Cup will come, but I don’t know if I will be in charge or not.
“If I’m in charge, we’ve spoken about it, we know that we have to win every game and we will approach each game as a final.
“So, let that time come first.”
The Super Eagles will be without three regular players for the fixture.
They are 2024 CAF Player of The Year nominee Ademola Lookman who left camp on Saturday after picking up a knock while Ola Aina also returned to England at the request of his club while goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali was excused following the demise of his father.
But Eguavoen believes the absence of the trio will not halt his team’s momentum.
“He (Lookman) is slightly hurt and can’t play…he said that he is at 70 per cent,” Eguavoen said, adding that he was the one who permitted him to return to his club Atalanta.
“Nuno (Espirito, Nottingham Forrest coach) called me, and he wanted Ola to return since we had already qualified. I sanctioned it. It’s part of the relationships we are building with club sides,” Eguavoen said.
The Super Eagles are not unaware of the fact that the Amavubi are in the same 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying group as them and that they (Rwanda) are the next opponents when the World Cup qualifying campaign resumes in March 2025.
According to the NFF, today’s encounter will see the return of former number one safe hands Maduka Okoye, and Bright Osayi-Samuel could start at right wing-back in the absence of Aina, with Bruno Onyemaechi at left wing-back, and Captain William Trrost-Ekong and Calvin Bassey at centre-back.
Wilfred Ndidi, Alex Iwobi, Frank Onyeka, Alhassan Yusuf Abdullahi, Fisayo Dele-Bashiru and Raphael Onyedika are still the options in the middle.
Victor Osimhen, whose goal earned the one point in Abidjan that took Nigeria to the top of the pool, will hope to score against the Amavubi, having come quite close several times when he joined the fray as a second-half substitute in Kigali in September.
He also has the target of overtaking former captain Segun Odegbami on the goals tally for Nigeria as they are both levelled on 23 goals.
The absence of Lookman means so much will be expected from fit-fighting and usually-dependable Moses Simon, with Samuel Chukwueze, Sadiq Umar, Kelechi Iheanacho and Victor Boniface all in the race for slots in the fore.
