NigeSuper Eagles did not train at the Borg El-Arab Stadium in Alexandria Monday night because they complained of tiredness after a six-hour flight from Abuja.
The Eagles had to endure a two-hour delay at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Abuja due to late approval for the chartered flight to fly over Sudan to Egypt.
And that was after a two-hour bus ride from Kaduna to Abuja, also on Monday.
It was further gathered that on Sunday coach Samson Siasia put the squad through a grueling four-hour training session under floodlights at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna.
The crucial Egypt vs Nigeria AFCON second clash will kick off at 6pm Nigerian time.
ria’s team of domestic league players are featuring at the CHAN in Rwanda for the second time. The country made their debut in 2014 in South Africa, where they finished third after they beat Zimbabwe courtesy of a Christian Obiozor goal. Ejike Uzoenyi was the MVP of CHAN 2014 after which he signed a lucrative deal with top South African club Mamelodi Sundowns and now many of his compatriots will hope to follow this path with Rwanda 2016 as the platform. They were eliminated by Ghana for the inaugural tournament in Côte d’Ivoire in 2009 and then Niger for the 2011 edition in Sudan. To qualify for the 2016 championship in Rwanda, Nigeria saw off Burkina Faso 2-0 on aggregate, winning 2-0 at home before holding the Stallions to a goalless draw in Ouagadougou. The team started preparation for the competition in Abuja in December 2015, before they flew out to South Africa for the final phase of preparation. In Pretoria, they drew 1-1 with Angola and beat Côte d’Ivoire 1-0 in warm-up games. Nigeria will open their campaign in Rwanda on January 18 against Niger Republic. They will also face Tunisia and Guinea in the group stage of the tournament.
