By Amaechi Agbo

Super Eagles forward, Kelechi Iheanacho may not, after all, join his teammates in Abidjan ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON 2023 which stars this Saturday.

This is coming after the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has disclosed that the attacker would join the team on Saturday.ffom England

However, his English Championship side, Leicester City has confirmed that Iheanacho is still injured and out for unspecified number of days.

Speaking ahead of the Foxes Saturday’s encounter against Coventry City, Leicester manager, Enzo Maresca gave his squad injury update and asserted that Iheanacho is still out.

The Foxes head to Coventry Building Society Arena on Saturday early kick-off hoping to build on their 10-point lead at the top of the Sky Bet Championship table and to give the Blue Army an afternoon to savour.

Enzo Maresca provided an update on Vardy’s condition: “He’s better. He started to train with us and he’s getting better. He’s not in the squad for tomorrow.”

“Kasey is back and Dennis is back,” Maresca added. “The only ones [out] are Jamie and Kel (Kelechi), still out, both of them,” he said.

Iheanacho has not played for Leicester since the turn of the year, with his last game coming against Ipswich Town on Boxing Day.

The 27-year-old has since missed his club’s matches against Cardiff City and Huddersfield in the English Championship.

Nigeria will begin their AFCON 2023 campaign on Sunday in Group A against Equitorial Guinea.

The 34th edition of the continental football showpiece will commence this Saturday with host Ivory Coast taking on Guinea Bissau in the opening match.

With deadline for replacement of injured players elapsing today, Jose Pesiero could have his plans cutout with Iheanacho’s unavailability.

Analysts aver that giving the situation, the coach could still call him to join the team and monitor his progress.