The Nigeria Football Federation on Tuesday confirmed that Napoli striker Victor Osimhen will miss the Super Eagles World Cup qualifiers against South Africa and the Benin Republic next month.
Osimhen, who featured in Napoli’s last game of the season against Lecce, has gone down with an injury that will keep him off the pitch for four weeks.
The 25-year-old is the reigning Africa Best Player and Nigeria’s most potent attacking weapon, one that head coach Finidi George would have been impatient to unleash against the Bafana Bafana and the Cheetahs in June.
And for good reason too.
Osimhen has scored 21 goals over the past four years for Nigeria and midway through his career, he is already the third-highest goalscorer in the country’s history – only one behind the legendary Segun Odegbami.
The Super Eagles have never lost a game in which Osimhen has scored and that record extends as far back as 2019 when he found the net in Nigeria’s 2-2 draw with Ukraine in a friendly.
Even when Osimhen does not score in a match, the energy and commitment he brings and his overall work rate cannot be quantified.
That’s the main reason why ex-gaffer Jose Peseiro started Osimhen in all of Nigeria’s seven games at the 2023 AFCON, despite scoring just one – in the opener against Equatorial Guinea.
Osimhen’s impact is so massive that when he is on the pitch, Nigeria rarely ever lose.
The Super Eagles have only lost five of the 35 games Osimhen has been involved in – he only started three of those. 21 goals and 11 assists in 35 appearances on Osimhen’s scorecard is the best goal-to-game ratio in Nigeria’s history.
However, the records do not look good regarding Nigeria’s games without Osimhen.
The Super Eagles have lost 17 matches out of the 46 that Osimhen did not feature in, either through injury or unavailability or being left entirely on the bench.
Interestingly, Nigeria only won 18 of those games.
Sadly, Nigeria will face South Africa without Osimhen and will need to find the goals and motivation to shoot down the Bafana Bafana.
Thankfully, aside from Victor Osimhen, several others carry enormous goal threats.
Victor Boniface finished as the top-scoring Nigerian footballer in Europe’s top five leagues.
The former Union Saint-Gilloise star scored 14 league goals and added eight assists to help Bayer Leverkusen secure the Bundesliga title for the first time in history.
The 23-year-old hit another five goals and an assist to fire Die Werkself to the final of the Europa League and added another two goals to help clinch the German Cup.
Boniface missed the AFCON due to injury and would be an unknown quantity for the South African defence.
There is also Ademola Lookman who has been the toast of many since he became the first African to score a hat-trick in the final of a European Cup competition.
Others who have been paying attention to Lookman before his goals first Atalanta to win the Europa League, the first in the club’s history, will know he was Nigeria’s most productive player at the AFCON.
The former RB Leipzig star contributed three goals and an assist to the Super Eagles’ charge to the final in Cote d’Ivoire where they eventually bowed to the hosts.
Then there is Paul Onuachu who has painted Turkey red with goals, while on loan at Trabzonspor from Southampton.
Onuachu excelled with 15 foals and four assists in only 21 appearances for Trapzonspor and his height and presence in the box could be a ruthless weapon for Finidi to unload on the South Africans.
While the Super Eagles have not fared too well without Osimhen in the team, the former African champions have shown that there are always other players in the wings who can step in and get the job done when given the chance.
With Samuel Chukwueze, Nathan Tella, and Terem Moffi also invited to camp for the World Cup qualifiers, coach Finidi has enough in his armoury to batter Bafana Bafana and shatter the Cheetahs.
NB: Do you think the Super Eagkes can beat South Africa and Benin without Victor Osimhen? Leave your comments below.