By Amaechi Agbo

Super Eagles deputy captain and defender, William Troost-Ekong have been ruled out of the 2022 World Cup play-off double header against the Black Stars of Ghana later this month, www.bestchoicesports.com.ng can report

Troost-Ekong’s unavailability for the two matches was confirmed on Friday, hours after interim coach, Augustine Eguavoen released a list of 32-man provisional list for the crackers with the 28 years among the defenders called up.

Troost-Ekong who had a solid partnership with Kenneth Omeruo during the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON in Cameroon is ruled out for up to four weeks with a muscle strain

Watford manager, Roy Hodgson who disclosed this while speaking to the press said the Super Eagles stalwart as well as the Senegalese forward Ismailia Sarr, could be out for “the foreseeable future”.

Ismaila Sarr has also been ruled out for some weeks and will not be part of the Terenga Lions clash against Pharaohs of Egypt.

“It’s a muscle strain, the same with Troost-Ekong”, Hodgson said ahead of their Sundays Premier League clash against Arsenal

“It’s going to keep them both out of the equation for the foreseeable future, but I don’t know how long exactly.

“It’s not a minor thing, it’s not a knock, both have muscle strains, and that can take anything from a week to four weeks to recover from.” the 74-year-old former England manager said.

Since he made his debut for the Super Eagles on 13 June 2015, playing 90 minutes in an AFCON qualifying match against Chad, Troost-Ekong have become and integral part of the Super Eagles defensive lineup with 53 caps to his credit thus far.

The former Udinese defence marshall was immense for the Super Eagles at the AFCON earlier in the year, rarely putting a foot wrong when paired with Kenneth Omeruo in the heart of the defence.

With Eguavoen selecting five players to form a standby list, the coach can pick either Chidozie Awaziem or Jamilu Collins.

Nigeria will play Ghana in 2022 Qatar World Cup play-off matches away on 25th while the reverse fixture holds 4 days later at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja.

The aggregate winner of the two matches will pick one of the available 5 slots for the continent for the quadrennial global football showpiece in Qatar in November