2025 AFCON qualifiers: Super Eagles dealt major blow as Key defender ruled out for four months

Semi Ajayi has played every West Bromwich Albion league game this season, and featured in Nigeria's 1-0 win against Libya last month.

West Bromwich Albion boss Carlos Corberan, has revealed Super Eagles defender, Semi Ajayi, will be out of action for about four months following surgery on a hamstring injury, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 30-year-old has been ever-present for the Albions this season, playing all twelve league games for the EFL Championships side.

The Hale End Academy graduate picked up a hamstring injury in his sides goalless draw against Cardiff City, and was withdrawn in the 79th minute to be replaced by Karlan Grant.

Further checks on Semi’s hamstring confirmed the lanky defender suffered a high-grade tear and following a surgery, the Nigerian will be out for four months, confirming his absence from this month’s AFCON 2025 qualifiers against the Republic of Benin and Rwanda, which is a big blow to Augustine Eguavoen’s plans.

Corberan has also lost fellow defenders Kyle Bartley and on-loan Paddy McNair. McNair went off with a hamstring injury just four minutes into the draw against Cardiff and the former Manchester United midfielder is set to miss two months of action while Bartley will miss between four and six weeks with a knee problem.

“We’re talking about three specific centre-backs who have had injuries at the same time, all within the same week. It will be a challenge for us,” the Spanish coach lamented, as revealed by BBC Sport.

In Ajayi’s absence, Calvin Bassey, Benjamin Tanimu, and William Troost-Ekong are reliable names the Super Eagles can bank on to fill the centre-back position. Olisah Ndah is also out of action for the year.

.

This post was last modified on November 1, 2024 8:54 pm

Adefolahan Guerreiro

Adefolahan is a multilingual journalist and writer at Soccernet Nigeria. With a track record of involvement in College sports, Adefolahan is focused on crafting engaging football content and utilising his language skills and extensive sports knowledge to enhance content accessibility for a global audience. He has interviewed Nigerian stars like Finidi George, Junior Lokosa, and Abraham Onahi Ogbu.

View Comments

  • Earn income while simply working online. work from home whenever you want. just for maximum 2 hours a day you can make more than $500 per day online. from this i made $17632 last month in my spare time.

    Check info here…………. W­w­w.Workjoin7.C­o­m

  • Stop pandering to the caprices of the clowns in the NFF.

    Who is Tanimu for goodness sake and what has he done. to merit his appearance in the SE? I feel like mentioning him here is just a ploy to warm him into the hearts of SE fans when he hasn't done anything to merit it.

    There are defenders of better standing scattered across Europe who the NFF has deliberately abandoned for because they won't pay bribe. Someone like Akpoguma plays well week in and out. But the corrupt NFF will never acknowledge him...same with Dessers and Akpom...

    Bunch of useless criminals running out football!

Recent Posts

Why CAF postponed the 2024 CHAN tournament

The Confederation of African Football have announced the postponement of the 2024 CAF African Nations… Read More

4 hours ago

Sevilla director drops update on Kelechi Iheanacho’s future amid Premier League links

Sevilla sporting director Victor Orta has revealed that the club is open to selling Super… Read More

7 hours ago

West Ham rekindle interest in Super Eagles striker despite Nottingham Forest stance

English Premier League side, West Ham United, have rekindled their interest in Super Eagles and… Read More

9 hours ago

Super Eagles B team: Eric Chelle to oversee three coaches for CHAN tournament– Eguavoen excluded

Malian gaffer, Eric Chelle, will not lead the Super Eagles B team to the 8th… Read More

9 hours ago

Free-scoring Nigerian winger set to return to Europe after failed stint in the United Arab Emirates

Swiss giants FC Basel have finalised a loan deal for Nigerian winger Philip Otele from… Read More

9 hours ago

Napoli weigh up €40m bid for Borussia Dortmund’s fufu-man with strong Nigerian ties

Italian Serie A side, Napoli, are weighing up a move for Germany and Borussia Dortmund… Read More

9 hours ago