{"id":19712,"date":"2026-01-12T23:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19712\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T23:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:32:08","slug":"nigeria-xi-vs-morocco-confirmed-team-news-predicted-lineup-injury-latest-for-afcon-semi-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/19712\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria XI vs Morocco: Confirmed team news, predicted lineup, injury latest for AFCON semi-final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigeria<\/a> are sweating on the fitness of Bright Osayi-Samuel ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> semi-final against Morocco.<\/p>\n

Osayi-Samuel has been a near ever-present for Nigeria at this year\u2019s AFCON<\/a>, with the dead-rubber group stage win over Uganda being the only game he\u2019s not featured in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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However, his participation for Wednesday\u2019s last-four meeting<\/a> is in doubt after limping off late on during the Super Eagles\u2019 quarter-final win over Algeria at the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Igoh Ogbu replaced Osayi-Samuel in stoppage-time on Saturday and is on standby to make his second start of the tournament <\/a>as Ryan Alebiosu – the natural back-up right-back option – is too a doubt after not making any of the matchday squads for the knockout phase.<\/p>\n

Alebiosu was taken to hospital for treatment on a leg injury suffered on his senior international debut for the Super Eagles against Uganda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"Doubtful:<\/p>\n

Doubtful: Bright Osayi-Samuel (AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Nigeria will certainly be without captain Wilfred Ndidi<\/a> for the semi-final showdown. The midfielder is suspended after picking up his second yellow card of the AFCON knockout phase in the win over Algeria<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ndidi was booked for time-wasting prior to being substituted as he picked up a knock that would have placed his involvement against the host nation in doubt regardless.<\/p>\n

Eric Chelle is expected to name Club Brugge midfielder Raphael Onyedika as the replacement for Ndidi, while Victor Osimhen<\/a> could be handed the captain\u2019s armband as he leads the line with Akor Adams.<\/p>\n

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Predicted Nigeria XI: Nwabali; Osayi-Samuel, Ajayi, Bassey, Onyemaechi; Onyeka, Onyedika, Iwobi; Lookman; Osimhen, Adams<\/p>\n

Injured: Dessers<\/p>\n

Doubts: Osayi-Samuel, Alebiosu<\/p>\n

Suspended: Ndidi<\/p>\n

Time and date: 8pm GMT on Wednesday, January 14, 2026<\/p>\n

How to watch: E4<\/p>\n

Venue: Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nigeria are sweating on the fitness of Bright Osayi-Samuel ahead of their Africa Cup of Nations semi-final against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[146,4447,390,12422,12416,12423,10299,12421,4409,165,122,12420,12419,12418,129,12417,127,153,125,10295],"class_list":{"0":"post-19712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nigeria","8":"tag-africa-cup-of-nations","9":"tag-akor-adams","10":"tag-algeria","11":"tag-bassey","12":"tag-bright-osayi-samuel","13":"tag-dessers","14":"tag-igoh-ogbu","15":"tag-iwobi","16":"tag-lookman","17":"tag-morocco","18":"tag-nigeria","19":"tag-onyeka","20":"tag-onyemaechi","21":"tag-osayi-samuel","22":"tag-raphael-onyedika","23":"tag-ryan-alebiosu","24":"tag-super-eagles","25":"tag-uganda","26":"tag-victor-osimhen","27":"tag-wilfred-ndidi"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}