Nigeria head coach Sunday Oliseh insists Odion Ighalo is still in his plans for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers despite not inviting him for the game against Tanzania.

The 26-year-old, who was on target in Super Eagles’ 2-0 victory against Chad, made a goal scoring debut in the English Premier League in Watford’s played a 2-2 draw against Everton at the Goodison Park.

There was no place for him in the 18-man list of foreign based pros for the game against the Taifa Stars, and Oliseh while responding to questions after his first training with the senior team says Ighalo’s exclusion doesn’t mean he is not in his plans.

“Well, Odion Ighalo is in our plans but for this first game against Tanzania, we are only inviting two players for each position,” Oliseh told the media.

“We are trying to get competition into positions. It is useless bringing in three professional players for the same position, paying their flight tickets and everything, bringing strikers and not been able to use one or two of them.

“So, in that also we have to take time. Also, I think we have some heavyweight in Emenike and Ujah for that position and if need be we might play the two of them.

“But if we want the best in our players we have to give them some respect. Emenike is a Nations Cup winner, a strong player, Ujah scored ten goals in the German League. We are talking about a league that hosts the world champions.

“Those who are commenting or laying emphasis on the fact that we rely mainly on foreign players to play should start asking questions because we are back home to train and we don’t have people to train because every club is trying to hold on to them.

“So, how do we now want them to learn and catch up with the ones that are in front of them. You can see that it affected our training today, we have to change our training from the beginning. We had invited 23 and we ended up with 14 players. So, I will leave you to judge from this,” he concluded. (goal.com)

•Photo shows Odion Ighalo.

Update news