Nigerians will be heaving signs of relief at the blast of the final whistle in Sofia on Monday evening, as even though England ran out emphatic 6-0 winners over Bulgaria in their European Championship qualifier, Chelsea youngster Fikayo Tomori remained an unused substitute throughout the encounter.

The Calgary-born native could have become cap-tied to England for life had Gareth Southgate elected to summon him from the substitute bench, bearing in mind that the Nigeria national team administration are hovering with hopes of luring him in no distant time.

However, he watched on for the entirety of the game as his club mate, Mason Mount, Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho and Bournemouth's Callum Wilson came off the bench as the manager ran the maximum changes.

The dual-eligible defender has emerged as a hot-in-demand player at international level following his break out season in the Premier League where he has forced himself into the starting XI at Chelsea ahead of his more established mates.

At the moment, Tomori is well behind the trio of Tyrone Mings, Harry Maguire and Michael Keane in Southgate's pecking order of central defenders for the Three Lions.

While England are next in action for the return fixture of their qualifier in November 14th, hostilities will resume for Nigeria a day earlier when they tackle Benin in an important AFCON Nations Cup qualifier and it remains to see if the player could change his mind before then.