• Watford fret as defender returns to London

Super Eagles’ Vice Captain, William Troost-Ekong, has joined the team’s growing injury list as Nigeria prepares for their second international friendly game against Algeria in five days.

Algeria’s home-based national team held the Eagles to a 2-2 draw on Friday in the first game. The Eagles will conclude their training tour of the Algeria with a match against the Fennecs main team tomorrow.

Troot-Ekong, who started the game on Friday, picked up an injury that forced him to pull out of the team completely.

Confirming his injury-forced withdrawal from the rest of the tour, Troost-Ekong wrote in his twitter handle: “Unfortunately picked up something in our game yesterday. Back home now to sort it out. All the best to the boys on Tuesday.”

The 29-year-old defender has endured a frustrating time through injury since joining Watford from Udinese in the summer of 2020, making 54 appearances in all competition for the Hornets.

Just three of those have come during the current campaign, when he has more commonly been included on the bench, after a summer transfer window in which he remained at Vicarage Road, despite links with a move to Turkey.

Even though he has not featured regularly for Rob Edwards’ side this season, Troost-Ekong has still showed on plenty of occasions, that he is a more than reliable option for the Hornets.

The Super Eagles also confirmed Troost-Ekong’s withdrawal via twitter. “William Troost-Ekong has left camp as a result of an injury cropped during the test game yesterday (Friday). He is back to base for further checks. Wishing you a speedy recovery, Ekong,” the team wrote.

Troost-Ekong joins the list of injury-hit players forced to miss Super Eagles’ tour of Algeria. Also among the injured is Wilfred Ndidi, who left the team in Algeria following recurrence of a lingering injury.

The others are Captain Ahmed Musa, Victor Osimhen, Sadiq Umar, Henry Onyekuru and Samuel Chukwueze.

Friday’s friendly match was originally billed to feature home-based Super Eagles, but the CHAN team’s failure to qualify for the competition billed to hold in the North African country, forced change in plans.

Tomorrow’s match will hold at the Miloud Hadefi Stadium, Oran, from 8.00 p.m. Nigerian time. (The Guardian)