Fears grow that Awaziem may be out of the Nations Cup as he fails to recover from knock

CHIGOZIE Awaziem could be out of the 33rd African Cup of Nations after it emerged that he is nursing an injury which is far worse than originally thought and is likely to keep him sidelined for a few weeks at the very least.

Awaziem, 25, who currently plays in the Turkish league with Alanyaspor, missed out on Nigeria's opening game against Egypt on Tuesday. It was thought that he only had a slight knock and would be back immediately but he has not recovered and yesterday, had to train alone, ruling him out of game against Sudan on Saturday.

Team officials now believe that Awaziem may have hid the extent of his injury from them in order to make the African Nations Cup squad. They fear that he could be out of action for at least two weeks, meaning he will not feature in the tournament at all, as even if he recovers before the final, coach Austin Eguavoen is unlikely to want to change a winning team.

In Nigeria's opening game, Watford's  William Ekong partnered with Leganés centreback Kenneth Omeruo at the heart of the defence. However, in the 79th minute of the match, Omeruo, the former Chelsea and Middlesboro defender limped off injured and was replaced with West Bromwich Albion's Semi Ajayi.

Omeruo is, however, expected to be fit for the game against Sudan after he was pictured in training yesterday. Nigeria's other centrebacks not in the Nations Cup squad include Leon Balogun of Glasgow Rangers and Kevin Akpoguma of Bundesliga side Hoffenheim.