The Super Eagles received a big boost ahead of their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations round of 16 clash against Cameroon on Saturday as duo William Troost-Ekong and Alhassan Yusuf trained with the rest of the squad on Wednesday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The pair was spotted in training at the Ecole Nationale de la Police, Abidjan on Wednesday.
Yusuf, who was outstanding on his AFCON debut against Equatorial Guinea, suffered a thigh injury in the 1-1 draw on the opening day, which ruled him out of the team’s remaining group games against Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau.
Troost-Ekong suffered a hamstring injury during Nigeria’s 1-0 win over Ivory Coast and subsequently missed the final group game against Guinea-Bissau, which ended 1-1.
The PAOK defender was one of the standout players in Nigeria’s nervy 1-0 win against hosts Ivory Coast, scoring the game-winning goal from the spot after Victor Osimhen was fouled in the box.
Meanwhile, our correspondent learnt that Thursday’s (today) training sessions will be closed to the media and fans to ensure the full concentration of the players and coaching staff. In contrast, the official training on Friday will be open to the media for the first 15 minutes.
Nigeria will face Cameroon at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium, Abidjan — the same turf where both teams battled out the 1984 AFCON final on Saturday by 9pm.
Both sides have clashed at the Africa Cup of Nations seven times, with each team winning thrice and one game drawn.
Cameroon won the final matches of the 1984, 1988 and 2000 AFCON tournaments, while the Eagles won the bronze-medal match 2-1 in 1992, defeated then Cup holders Cameroon 2-1 in the 2004 quarter-finals and won 3-2 in the Round of 16 in Egypt five years ago.
Both teams drew 1-1 in the group phase in 1988, Samuel Okwaraji scoring a scorcher after only two minutes in Rabat and Roger Milla equalising with a header when the Andrew Uwe-led Nigerian defence thought they had kept him offside.
