Super Eagles Coach, Eric Chelle and his backroom staff arrived in Polokwani, South Africa, yesterday, ahead of Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho.

Lesotho will host Nigeria in the South African city on October 10. The delegation, which, according to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), is the first batch of the Nigerian contingent for the game, left the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, by 1.30 p.m. to the Oliver Thambo International Airport, Johannesburg aboard an Ethiopian Airline’s flight.

On arrival in Johannesburg, they took a four-hour flight to Polokwani ahead of the arrival of the players and other members of the team from Europe today.

According to an NFF official, the federation left some of its protocol officials in Johannesburg to await the arrival of the players. Nigeria must beat Lesotho in the forthcoming game to harbor any hope of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup with victory in its last match against Benin Republic on October 14.

Benin Republic and South Africa are the two top teams in group, one of them will win Group C’s automatic ticket if it wins its two remaining games.
Benin is top of the group on 14 points, but lead on goals difference from South Africa, which also has 14 points.

Nigeria is third in the group with 11 points and will end on 17 points if the Super Eagles defeat Lesotho and Benin Republic. That 17 points could fetch the Eagles a playoff opportunity if South Africa beats Rwanda and Zimbabwe, while Nigeria defeat Lesotho and Benin Republic.

But the quest for victory over Lesotho and Benin Republic is being threatened by a spate of injuries to some of the players picked by Chelle for the games.

Last week, the Super Eagles’ coach was forced to replace Cyril Dessers and Bright Osayi-Samuel with Chrisantus Uche and Zaidu Sanusi due to injury to the duo.

At the weekend, Germany-based defender, Felix Agu, was forced off the pitch during Werder Bremen’s 1-0 win over St Pauli. Although the NFF has not confirmed the extent of Agu’s injury, there are indications that he is not likely to be fit in time for the fixtures.The Eagles are already missing Ola Aina, Raphael Onyedika, and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who were earlier ruled out of the qualifiers.