Nottingham Forest forward Emmanuel Dennis has been ruled out of Nigeria’s international friendly against Algeria’s Dessert Warriors on the 27th of this month, reports Sports247.ng.
Dennis was not included in the initial 25-man squad for the friendly. He was called up to fill in for Henry Onyekuru, who is out with an injury. Dennis has now been ruled out of the team due to an injury of his own, it was revealed in a tweet from the Super Eagles’ official account.
The 24-year-old is the latest invited player to have pulled out due to injury, joining the likes of Ahmed Musa (Sivasspor), Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal), Leon Balogun (Queens Park Rangers) and Onyekuru (Demirspor).
Valentine Ozornwafor (FC Sochaux), Godwin Saviour (Casa Pia), and Ebube Duru (Rivers United) were handed call ups as replacements for the earlier injured players. A replacement for Dennis is yet to be announced.
Nigeria will be without a significant number of regular players in the game including Victor Osimhen and Sadiq Umar. Osimhen sustained a muscle injury in Napoli’s Champions League game against Liverpool a fortnight ago.
Meanwhile, Real Sociedad’s Sadiq ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament in a La Liga game against Getafe on September 11th. The 25-year-old is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines. Joe Aribo is the other big name player to be left out of the squad for reasons unknown.
