Super Eagles players Awoniyi, Aina, Onyeka, Lookman. (Photo by Imago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u200bLeading up to that match, heavy concerns were raised regarding the quality of the pitch. Aina ultimately became a casualty of the poor playing surface, suffering a hamstring injury during the game.<\/p>\n
\u200bThe injury sidelined him until December. At the time, with the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) fast approaching, there was uncertainty over his participation with the national team.<\/p>\n
\u200bUltimately, Aina was left out of the tournament squad\u2014but not due to fitness issues. He had already recovered and was fit to play before the tournament started. <\/p>\n
By comparison, Morocco star Achraf Hakimi was carried into the AFCON tournament while still nursing an injury, eventually returning to the starting lineup by the third group game.<\/p>\n Ola Aina of Nottingham Forest Copyright: ImagoxPaulxBonserx<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u200bHad Aina been determined to represent the Super Eagles at AFCON, he could have joined the squad and played. Also, Nottingham Forest would have lacked the leverage to block his release, given his status as one of the senior and highly respected figures at his club and in the national team setup.<\/p>\n
\u200bEven after the end of the 2025 AFCON, the former Chelsea academy graduate was also conspicuously absent from the squads that faced Iran and Jordan.<\/p>\n
Soccer \u200bIs Ola Aina Still Committed to the Super Eagles?<\/h2>\n \u200bWith these successive absences from Nigeria’s fixtures over the last five months, questioning Aina\u2019s commitment and loyalty to the Super Eagles is entirely justified.<\/p>\n
\u200bFollowing years of inconsistent performances\u2014most notably punctuated by the team’s failure to qualify for the upcoming World Cup\u2014it is crucial that only fully committed players are handed the honor of wearing the green and white jersey.<\/p>\nBassey, Lookman, Aina, Iwobi, Ajayi Super Eagles players in training gear (Photo by Imago)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u200bWhile Aina’s brilliance is undeniable, Bright Osayi-Samuel stepped into the right-back role during AFCON, and delivered top performances game after game. There is even Benjamin Fredrick who is also recovering from an injury. And he is always sure to deliver quality whenever he plays for Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u200bNow 29 and approaching the twilight of his international career, Aina will undoubtedly want to leave a lasting legacy with the national team. <\/p>\n
After this current window of international friendlies, Nigeria\u2019s next assignment will be the AFCON 2027 qualifiers which begin in September. Whether Aina returns to the fold or remains on the sidelines is yet to be seen.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>Kelvin Omachonu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Ola Aina’s commitment to the Super Eagles has come under scrutiny following his omission from the squads set to feature in the Unity Cup as well as the upcoming friendlies against Poland and Portugal, Soccernet.ng reports. \u200bCoach Chelle announced his squads for these fixtures earlier this week, presenting two significantly different lists. For the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":907725,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3577,2005,4578],"tags":[7956,6323],"class_list":{"0":"post-907724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eagles","8":"category-soccer","9":"category-super","10":"tag-eagles","11":"tag-super"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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