{"id":75173,"date":"2025-09-08T15:50:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=75173"},"modified":"2025-09-08T15:50:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:50:59","slug":"osimhen-to-miss-south-africa-clash-after-injury-setback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/09\/08\/osimhen-to-miss-south-africa-clash-after-injury-setback\/","title":{"rendered":"Osimhen to Miss South Africa Clash After Injury Setback"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Njoku Chijioke<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s star striker Victor Osimhen has been ruled out of Tuesday\u2019s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against South Africa after picking up an injury in the Super Eagles\u2019 1-0 win over Rwanda on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The 26-year-old was forced off in the first half following a heavy tackle that left him with a painful shin bruise.<\/p>\n<p>Team doctors confirmed he would not be fit to feature and will instead return to his club in Turkey for further treatment and assessment.<\/p>\n<p>Osimhen\u2019s absence is a major blow for Nigeria, who sit third in Group C with 10 points from seven matches, six behind leaders South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The Bloemfontein clash is a must-win for the Super Eagles to keep their qualification hopes alive.<\/p>\n<p>Head coach Eric Chelle now faces the challenge of reshuffling his frontline and adjusting tactics in the absence of his talisman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Njoku Chijioke &nbsp; Nigeria\u2019s star striker Victor Osimhen has been ruled out of Tuesday\u2019s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against South Africa after picking up an injury in the Super Eagles\u2019 1-0 win over Rwanda on Saturday. The 26-year-old was forced off in the first half following a heavy tackle that left him with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":75174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75175,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75173\/revisions\/75175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}