Nigeria interim coach Augustine Eguavoen has revealed Samuel Chukwueze suffered a knock in the first leg of the 2022 World Cup qualifier away to Ghana. This is the reason why he was not involved in Saturday's training session.
The Villarreal winger lasted an hour as the two West African heavyweights battled to a goalless draw in Kumasi.
However, the tactician went on to state his charges are in high spirits ahead of the second leg that will be played on Tuesday.
"The players are in high spirits, we are more than halfway through and the boys know it," Eguavoen said as quoted by All Nigeria Soccer.
"I had a word with them a while ago, and I doff my hat to them because they were resilient. They worked hard in such an atmosphere, so I think it was a very good result [against Ghana].
"Some players didn't get involved now because one or two had a knock yesterday and recovery training people that played 90, 94 minutes usually will do just a little bit and then rest.
"People who didn't play up to 70 minutes would do more and that's exactly what we just did.
"Few of them that had knocks like Chukwueze, we just want to rest him, a complete rest, and then he can probably resume tomorrow."
Meanwhile, defender Calvin Bassey is confident the Super Eagles will win on Tuesday and went on to state how it felt turning out for the West African nation.
"Obviously, we will get the win [in the second-leg]," the Rangers left-back said as quoted by Complete Sports.
"It was an honour to represent this great nation. Playing in Africa is a lot more physical, it’s just adjusting to the environment, the pitch, the weather, it’s harder to breathe so it’s just adjusting to it."
"The reception has been amazing. I’ve known some of the boys for quite a while and they are all welcoming. They are a good bunch of boys with experience that we can learn from."