BREAKING: Waldrum to field half-strength team as visa, injuries stop key players

By Harry Awurumibe, Africa’s No.1 Women Football Journalist

With few hours to the first of the two high-profile international friendly matches between Canada and Nigeria, Super Falcons Head Coach Randy Waldrum has no choice but to field a half-strength team in the tie billed for  BC Place Arena in Vancouver.

This is even as some of the invited first team players are either injured or

unable to secure entry visas to honour the two  matches in Canada, a situation which have left the coach with no better choice than to extend invitation to players who were not earlier invited for Canada trip like third choice goalkeeper Yewande Balogun and new face, Jennifer Onyinyechi Echegini, a midfielder.

Sadly, reliable players who were invited but are unable to hit camp due to one reason or another are Osinachi Ohale,  Glory Ogbonnaya and Esther Okoronkwo, who showed her class, netting the match-winner against the Ivorians in Abidjan when Nigeria beat Cote d’Ivoire in February’s Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) final qualifiers in Abuja and Abidjan respectively.

Others are CSKA Moscow’s Francisca Ordega; Regina Otu [Minsk], Ngozi Sonia Okobi-Okeoghene  and Halimatu Ayinde [Eskilstuna United].