By Our Correspondent

Winger, Samuel Kalu was a surprise omission from the 24-man Eagles list released by coach Gernot Rohr ahead of the last two World Cup qualifying matches between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and Lone Stats of Liberia as well as Vape Verde next week.

Rohr revealed that the attacker’s exclusion from the Nigeria squad for the internationals was at his own request.

The Bordeaux winger, who was a member of the Super Eagles squad to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations and has amassed 16 caps since his international debut three years ago, requested an exemption from the reaming 2022 Qatar World Cup qualifiers, Rohr told French radio.

According to the German, “I spoke with him and he asked not to be selected.”

“He made a very good argument about wanting to concentrate on the club – he told me that the time had come for him to give his all, to fight to regain his place in the Girondins squad. I found his speech to be very positive.”

Complete Sports reports that the 24-year-old winger has endured a fitful season so far, only making one starting appearance for Bordeaux since he collapsed on the pitch 14 minutes into the club’s Matchday 2 trip to Olympique Marseille in August.

In all, he has managed nine Ligue 1 appearances for Les Girondins this season, scoring once.

However, Kalu came off the bench to devastating effect in their most recent outing: a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Stade de Reims in which the former Gent man laid on the equaliser for fellow substitute Jimmy Briand, before winning a penalty after his shot struck the hand of a Reims defender inside the penalty box.

In spite of his lack of consistent playing time, Rohr has made a point of including the forward in his international squads whenever he has been fit. His absence for the World Cup qualifying meetings with Liberia and Cape Verde will therefore be a major miss for the squad.