Less than two weeks before Nigeria's A team take to the Stadion Miejski (Wroclaw) pitch in their first friendly of 2018 against Poland, fans favourite Joel Obi may not wear the national team's jersey in that game.

Obi's injury woes show no sign of abating, with the central midfielder not featuring for Torino in their 3-0 loss to Roma in the Serie A on Friday night.

The word from Italy is that the Super Eagles star suffered a muscular injury in training, thus he was not selected in Torino's 20-man provisional squad for the trip to the Italian capital.

That same injury saw him miss seven straight games for The Maroons in the first half of the season.

Despite Obi's obvious talent, injuries have continued to hamper his progress so much so that he was omitted from Nigeria's roster for the 2014 World Cup after failing to prove his fitness during the training camp.

In the past four seasons, Obi's most appearances in a single-season is 23 which he achieved during the 2016-2017 campaign, but that same season Wilfred Ndidi, one of his rivals for a World Cup spot, played a combined 57 games for Racing Genk and Leicester City.

It is unclear how long the former Inter Milan wonderkid will be in the treatment room and whether the Nigeria Federation will call up a replacement.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel