Nigeria vs Benin, Lesotho: Rohr explains why he didn’t add Onuachu to initial 24-man squad

Head coach of the Nigeria’s Super Eagles, Gernot Rohr, has claimed he left Paul Onuachu out of his initial 24-man squad to face Benin Republic and Lesotho, because he wanted to give other players a chance.

Onuachu was only included in a standby list, despite his outstanding displays for Genk in Belgium.

Rohr eventually brought in the 26-year-old striker after Moses Simon and other Super Eagles stars in France pulled out of the games due to the country’s COVID-19 protocol.

During a media conference on Tuesday, Rohr was quizzed about his decision.

He said: “Onuachu is part of the team. I invited him for his first match with the Eagles, and he scored a goal after seven seconds. Then people were waiting for him to continue that way, but he couldn’t.

“He is part of our team, a very important player, but sometimes we also have to look out for other players who deserve to have a chance.

“The same people who were asking, ‘why are you playing him’ were the same people asking why he was omitted from the initial list of 23.”