Super Eagles and Leicester City midfielder Wilfred Ndidi will stay on the sideline for three after picking up a muscle injury.
Ndidi, a regular with the Super Eagles was injured while playing for Leicester during a New year Day Championship tie against Huddersfield. This effectively has ruled out of the African Cup of Nations, coach Jose Peseiro has since replaced him with Alhassan Yusuf, who currently plays for Royal Antwerp in Belgium.
A three-month absence could see Ndidi miss 15 of Leicester’s remaining 20 league games this season.
“For Wilf, it will be a long time,” said Foxes boss Enzo Maresca.
“It could be three months. It looks like a muscle problem, but an important one so we now see in the next hours.”
Speaking of Kelechi Iheanacho who is expected to join the Super Eagles in Cote d’Ivoire, Maresca said: “The only thing I can say is that Kel is still injured. It’s getting better, but it’s still not 100 percent; otherwise, he would be in the squad for tomorrow, and he’s not in the squad.”