Individual Training For Injured Mikel, Eagles Captain Will Not Play Vs Guangzhou Evergrande

Published: August 02, 2018

John Obi Mikel is still battling to overcome a knee injury a month before the national team's first game of the 2018-2019 season, allnigeriasoccer.com reports.

The Super Eagles captain will definitely not be in the Tianjin Teda squad for their Chinese Super League clash with Guangzhou Evergrande on Thursday afternoon.

Mikel did not train normally with the rest of his teammates on Wednesday, with the defensive midfielder continuing his recovery work and running alone on the sidelines.

The 31-year-old is also doubtful to be in Tianjin Teda's traveling party for Sunday's game at Hebei CFFC as he needs to fully recover from the ailment.

Assuming Mikel is named on the Nigeria roster for the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Seychelles, the maximum amount of games he can play for Tianjin Teda before reporting for international duty is five, meaning he would have featured in only six games since Nigeria were eliminated from the 2018 World Cup in June.

Nigeria manager Gernot Rohr is expected to announce his squad list for the AFCON qualifier within the next three weeks.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel