Rohr Demands More From Perpetual Benchwarmers Osimhen, Onyekuru, Uzoho

The best news that came out of the Super Eagles in the Africa Cup of Nations group stage was when they qualified for the round of 16 with a game to spare, meaning Gernot Rohr could afford to tinker with his starting line-up against Madagascar so as to give playing time to the fringe players.

Of the 23 players named in the Super Eagles squad, four players in the shape of Jamilu Collins, Henry Onyekuru, Victor Osimhen and Francis Uzoho have not had playing time.

With the exception of Collins who recently recovered from injury, Rohr has demanded that the players yet to make their AFOCN debuts should show more professionalism before they are considered for games.

''We have played already with 18 (19) players from 23 which is already good. I hope that we can see other players also,'' said Rohr in an interview with the Super Eagles Media team. 

''We want to see all the time attitude in the training sessions, that they show us that they are committed in the warming up, in the participation, in the exercises.

''I think our young players will have the chance to participate, we saw already Chukwueze, Paul Onuachu, Kalu, John Ogu, we have seen the second goalkeeper.

''We have 17 to 18 players who have this rhythm of the competition, it is not easy to play everybody also and I'm waiting for some of them to show more motivation in the training sessions.''

Rohr claimed during Tuesday's pre-match press conference that all the 23 players are available for selection against South Africa, including John Obi Mikel who suffered a knee injury vs Madagascar.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel