Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has explained the decision to dropped Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho and Rotherham defender Semi Ajayi as he released his final 23 man squad for the 2019 AFCON hosting in Egypt.
CMSPORTS was on ground to cover the early Sunday morning training of the team as the 23 players are in full gear ready to depart for Egypt.
In an exclusive interview with www.cmsportz.blogspot.com immediately after the training, Gernot Rohr explained what informed the decision to drop Iheanacho and Ajayi.
"We are judging based on what happened during the course of the season and we have looked of course what happened during the week. We have 25 (very good) players in the camp and they (Iheanacho and Semi) are still on the standby".
"I hope there will be no injury like we had in the World cup when Simone Moses had to be replaced. We have this 25 very good players but we can not go with the 25 players, we have to drop two players".
"I explained to them why (they were dropped), it was a very difficult choice. Am not sure to be right all the time making decision but this time all the technical crew were unanimous to say we have to drop this players. They are on a standby because we never can know what will happen".
When the gaffer was asked how sure he was about his final selection and what to expect from the team during the AFCON, Rohr says
"I am sure they do all they can and give their best for the Nation. Everybody is fit but we have to work hard still because we saw yesterday that to score goals it wasn't easy and hopefully we will not experience the same in Egypt"
"I am happy we could do this much and with the rainy season it gives us the chance to have a good physical test and that's something interesting. Now we have to work on our formations, the defense is okay, we have to work on our offensive approach to be more efficient".
His final messages to the Nigeria football fans
"The message is we will ensure everybody will be giving opportunity to make the country proud. It will be very difficult to win it (the tournament) but we will try. We have in Egypt a lot of strong teams that qualified, there is no one easy match to win in the Nations Cup anymore even Burundi, Madagascar and Zimbabwe are no pushovers anymore but we will give our best to ensure the players is fit before our first match on the 22nd of June".
CMSPORTS was on ground to cover the early Sunday morning training of the team as the 23 players are in full gear ready to depart for Egypt.
In an exclusive interview with www.cmsportz.blogspot.com immediately after the training, Gernot Rohr explained what informed the decision to drop Iheanacho and Ajayi.
"We are judging based on what happened during the course of the season and we have looked of course what happened during the week. We have 25 (very good) players in the camp and they (Iheanacho and Semi) are still on the standby".
"I hope there will be no injury like we had in the World cup when Simone Moses had to be replaced. We have this 25 very good players but we can not go with the 25 players, we have to drop two players".
"I explained to them why (they were dropped), it was a very difficult choice. Am not sure to be right all the time making decision but this time all the technical crew were unanimous to say we have to drop this players. They are on a standby because we never can know what will happen".
When the gaffer was asked how sure he was about his final selection and what to expect from the team during the AFCON, Rohr says
"I am sure they do all they can and give their best for the Nation. Everybody is fit but we have to work hard still because we saw yesterday that to score goals it wasn't easy and hopefully we will not experience the same in Egypt"
"I am happy we could do this much and with the rainy season it gives us the chance to have a good physical test and that's something interesting. Now we have to work on our formations, the defense is okay, we have to work on our offensive approach to be more efficient".
His final messages to the Nigeria football fans
"The message is we will ensure everybody will be giving opportunity to make the country proud. It will be very difficult to win it (the tournament) but we will try. We have in Egypt a lot of strong teams that qualified, there is no one easy match to win in the Nations Cup anymore even Burundi, Madagascar and Zimbabwe are no pushovers anymore but we will give our best to ensure the players is fit before our first match on the 22nd of June".
Comments