Former AS Roma of Italy forward Umar Sadiq is set to miss Nigeria’s crucial AFCON double-header fixture with Benin and Lesotho next week over fears of coronavirus.
Sadiq, who plays for Spanish second division club UD Almeria was on the verge of making a debut appearance for the Super Eagles after he was included in Gernot Rohr’s 24-man squad for the qualifiers.
However, the striker will have to wait for a second opportunity to present itself after his club announced the latest development in a statement released on their verified Twitter handle on Friday.
The club announced there were fears protocols put in place as a result of COVID-19 may have been flouted, hence their decision to stop Sadiq from travelling for the qualifiers.
The statement translated from Spanish to English reads:”Due to the pandemic crisis that we are experiencing, due to the sars-cov-2 virus (COVID-19) and thoroughly evaluating all the impacts, we believe that the sanitary, security or bureaucratic conditions are not met, so that our player Sadiq Umar present himself to the call-up of the Nigerian national team.
“Therefore, based on article 3.1b of Annex 1 of FIFA RSTP, we have notified the player not to appear at the aforementioned call.”
The 24-year-old striker has been in brilliant scoring form for Almeria since he joined up last yer from Serbian club, Partizan Belgrade.
Sadiq is the latest player that will miss this month’s games after Samuel Kalu (injury) and Moses Simon (travelling restrictions in France over COVID-19) were ruled out
