Nigeria’s AFCON hopes have been dealt a massive blow after top scorer Emmanuel Emenike was ruled out of Sunday’s final by a muscle tear.
MTNFootball.com exclusively report that a scan has showed the Spartak Moscow striker, who leads the goals chart at this year’s Nations Cup, suffered a thigh muscle tear of the right leg and so will miss the tournament final against Burkina Faso.
A top team official informed MTNFootball.com: “Emenike has been ruled out after a scan showed he suffered a thigh muscle tear of the right leg during the semi-final against Mali. It’s a big, big blow for Nigeria.”
The big, all-action centre-forward, who has emerged as one of the shinning stars at only his first AFCON, has fired four goals, just short of the 10 goals scored by Nigeria to propel them to the Sunday’s championship game.
One of his goals was the opening Group C match against Burkina Faso, which underlined his power-play style as he literally bulldozed his way past his markers to give Nigeria the lead.
The 25-year-old striker has missed training for the past two days and both he and team officials have worked overtime to assure he will be fit for Sunday.
Villarreal striker Ikechukwu Uche and Russia-based forward Ahmed Musa could be the likely replacement for the injured star now.
Uche has struggled for form at this competition since he lost his starting XI role to Emenike, while Ahmed Musa has not been at his most lethal best even though he scored in Wednesday’s 4-1 demolition of Mali.
Musa has been played by CSKA Moscow at centre-forward in the first half of the Russian Premier League with telling effect as he has scored a total of nine goals in all competitions thus far.
He may have struggled with his form but his confidence would have been boosted by his well-taken goal against Mali in Durban.
Ideye, who has regained top form and crowned it with a goal on Wednesday, could also be pushed as top striker with Uche or Musa now playing behind him.