Lukman Out Of Olympic Playoffs

Nigeria’s Olympic team, the U-23 Eagles, will be without skipper  Haruna Lukman for the final qualifying tournament in Morocco after he pulled out at the last minute.

Team officials informed MTNFootball.com that the Ukraine-based midfielder was not released by his club Dynamo Kiev for the competition, which kicks off on 26 November.

A club versus country row leading up to this U-23 championship has meant Nigeria will be without several other top overseas-based pros like Joel Obi (Inter Milan/Italy), Ahmed Musa (VVV Venlo/The Netherlands), Ekigho Ehiosun (Samsunspor/Turkey), Nosa Igiebor (Hapoel Tel Aviv/Israel) and Nnamdi Oduamadi (Torino/Italy).

The Dream Team V, as the Nigeria’s Olympic team are fondly called by their fans, will therefore be led by defender Kingsley Udoh, while Ocean Boys midfielder, Ayo Saka, is now likely to fill the gap for the experienced Haruna in the first team.

Nigeria Premier League hotshot, Jude Aneke from Kaduna United, has also rejoined the team after he appeared to have been released earlier on.

Aneke scored 20 goals to set a new NPL all-time goals record this past season. He was rewarded for this feat with his first international cap against Zambia on Tuesday.

Nigeria are drawn in Group A along with host nation Morocco, Algeria and Senegal.

They open the tournament against the hosts in Tangiers on 26 November.