Rohr calls up Paok’s Esiti as a replacement for Ndidi and also recalls Bryan Idowu

SUPER Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr has called up Paok of Greece midfielder Anderson Esiti as a replacement for the injured Wilfred Ndidi for the September 10 friendly encounter against Ukraine in Dnipro.

In what will be the first senior meeting between the two sides, Nigeria will face Ukraine’s national team in the southern city of Dnipro during next month’s Fifa window.  Ndidi of Leicester City has had to pull out of the match after picking up a hamstring injury that saw him miss last weekend’s league match.

Coach Rohr has thus called up Esiti, 25, as a replacement and has also handed an invitation to leftback Bryan Idowu increasing the number of players invited for the friendly to 24. Esiti, who joined Greek champions, Paok from Gent in Belgium last month, has featured twice for the Super Eagles in the past.

A Nigerian Football Federation spokesman said: “Coach Gernot Rohr has called up Paok FC of Greece midfielder Anderson Esiti as replacement for the injured Ndidi. Bryan Idowu has also been added to the list to make it 24 players for Ukraine friendly.”

Ndidi picked up an hamstring injury in Leicester City’s penultimate Premier League game against Chelsea at the Stamford Bridge where he netted the Foxes’ equalising goal. He subsequently missed out on the club’s 2-1 away win at Sheffield United last weekend and is expected to spent few weeks on the sidelines to recover fully from the injury.

Idowu, who plays for Russian club, Locomotiv Moscow, is making a return to the squad after over a year. Idowu, 27, has been consistently snubbed by Rohr since the 2018 World Cup in Russia for falling to feature regularly for his club.