U20 AFCON qualifying tournament over for Flying Eagles midfielder

The Flying Eagles will defend their sub-regional WAFU B U20 championship Wednesday night in Lome, Togo, without defensive midfielder Sabiu Ibrahim, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to an ankle injury.

The Niger Tornadoes star was not part of Monday’s recovery training, which lasted an hour.

He missed Sunday’s semifinal win over Niger after he suffered the injury in the decisive Group B match against Cote d’Ivoire.

A team official told SCORENigeria: “He is out of the final as well.”

It is now left to be seen whether coach Aliyu Zubairu will again take the huge gamble of starting El Kanemi Warriors attacking midfielder Suleyman Alabi ‘Jojo’ in defensive midfield or Raphael Oyebanjo, a defensive midfielder by trade, will start against Ghana.