Victor Osimhen will miss the November international window for the second successive time, and the Osimhen absence Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle must manage could hardly come at a worse moment. The Galatasaray striker is recovering from knee surgery after slipping on the turf at Rams Park during the Champions League win over Stuttgart, and Nigeria must now face Tanzania twice in AFCON 2027 qualifying without the man who has scored 35 goals in 45 appearances for his country.
Chelle has turned to Akor Adams, Tolu Arokodare and Taiwo Awoniyi to lead the attack in Uyo on Friday — as Legit.ng reports — and the numbers show just how big the gap is. Between them, the three invited strikers have 11 goals in 42 Super Eagles appearances. Osimhen alone has more than three times that tally, and he sits just two goals behind the late Rashidi Yekini’s all-time Nigerian record of 37.
Osimhen absence Super Eagles: the numbers behind the gap
Akor Adams is the most productive of the trio. The Venezia striker has seven goals in 18 caps since his debut in the World Cup qualifier against Lesotho in October 2025, when he scored the winner off an Osimhen assist. He added two goals at AFCON 2025 in Morocco, where Nigeria finished third, and he has carried that form into Serie A this season.
Tolu Arokodare is the form pick. The Ajax striker made his international bow in Chelle’s first game as head coach, the World Cup qualifier against Rwanda in March 2025, and has 12 caps and two goals for Nigeria — his first in a friendly against Russia in June, and the decisive strike in the 1-0 qualifier win over Rwanda in Uyo in September. At club level he has been prolific, with 12 goals in 16 games for Ajax this season, including a brace in the 6-1 win over Midtjylland last week.
Taiwo Awoniyi is the most experienced of the three. The Coventry striker debuted in 2021 and played at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon that same year, a tournament Osimhen missed through injury. Across 12 appearances for the Super Eagles, Awoniyi has scored twice, one of them in the group-stage win over Sudan at AFCON 2021.
All three were also in the squad for the September window, when Osimhen was unavailable as well, so Chelle knows exactly what he is getting. Saudi-based forward George Ilenikhena, who also featured in September, was left out of the latest 24-man squad.
Chelle’s options against Tanzania
Nigeria host Tanzania at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday, 13 November, at 5pm WAT, before the return leg at the Amaan Stadium in Zanzibar on Tuesday, 17 November. The Super Eagles sit three points behind the Group L leaders after beating Madagascar 2-1 and losing 3-0 to Guinea-Bissau, so maximum points from the double-header are close to non-negotiable — even though Tanzania, as one of the AFCON 2027 co-hosts, are already assured of a place at the tournament.
Chelle is not short of attacking support around his strikers. Ademola Lookman, Moses Simon and Moses Usor are all in the squad, and the first training session in Uyo on Tuesday evening brought together the 10 early arrivals — including Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and Simon — with the rest of the 24-man party expected in camp by Wednesday. The question is who starts through the middle on Friday: Adams has the best international record of the three, Arokodare has the hottest club form, and Awoniyi has the tournament experience.
Can the trio deliver without Osimhen?
The honest answer is that nobody in this squad replaces Osimhen’s goals — not individually, and not even combined. But the job on Friday is not to replace him; it is to score enough against a Tanzania side that has already arrived in Uyo and will be organised and hard to break down. Adams’ movement, Arokodare’s physical presence and Awoniyi’s nous give Chelle three different ways to attack the game, and all three will know this is the biggest audition of their international careers so far.
If one of them finds the net in Uyo, the conversation changes overnight. Until then, the Osimhen absence hangs over everything Nigeria do — and Friday is the night Adams, Arokodare or Awoniyi can start to answer it. For more on the week’s football, check today’s predictions.
Photos: Wikimedia Commons (public domain) — collage by SportsBuddy
