It has been confirmed that Leon Balogun has missed on the final squad for Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations campaign, due to injury.
Following his recent set-back at Ibrox, the Berlin-born stopper has not made a recovery in time to join up with the Super Eagles for the tournament in Cameroon, which will run from 9th January to 6th February.
Emmanuel Dennis and Victor Osimhen no longer going to AFCON!
Leon Balogun and Shehu Abdullahi also out of the updated 28 man Nigeria list.
Will be interesting to hear from Nigeria/Watford on why no Dennis. (Ranieri said this week “the email didn’t arrive at the right moment.”) pic.twitter.com/pjBUrgztm4
— John Bennett (@JohnBennettBBC) December 31, 2021
Impact
It will be a personal blow for the popular player whch now means that Rangers only representative at AFCON will be Joe Aribo, given that Calvin Bassey did not make the provisional squad.
From a Rangers perspective, there is a silver lining from the individual disappointment for Balogun as he will now be able to fully concentrate on his recovery and rejoining the Gers squad for the resumption of the season, later in January.
This will impact boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s plans, but given that he would have expected to be without the former Brighton man either way, it will not be a surprise if we see defensive reinforcements arrive in the door at Ibrox in the coming transfer window – it is actually quite likely and one potential defensive arrival is USMNT player, James Sands.