Nigeria manager Gernot Rohr was highly critical of Maduka Okoye during the pre-match press conference on Wednesday, a day before the Super Eagles face off with Central African Republic in a 2022 World Cup qualifier.

Allnigeriasoccer.com suggested yesterday that the Sparta Rotterdam glovesman was at risk of losing his spot in the Super Eagles starting XI due to his late arrival in camp and Rohr has confirmed as much .

The Franco-German manager questioned the professionalism of Okoye and his commitment to the national team cause after missing his flight to Lagos.

It is reflected in the statistics that the German-born goalie had been one of the untouchable players in the Super Eagles, starting all but one of the last ten games played by the Super Eagles A team, but could find himself on the bench for  the first time since November 17, 2019 on Thursday.

Speaking at the briefing monitored by allnigeriasoccer.com, Rohr said : "The late arrival of Maduka, he arrived in the night only. He missed his flight, I am not happy about it, it's not professional.

"I am not sure that he will start the game, we have two other goalkeepers.

"Everybody believes that it will be an easy victory, it's not an easy match and when players are arriving late like this it is not helping us when we say we have to be serious.

"He did one training session this morning in the gym, then he will do another training session this afternoon.

"I spoke with him, he knows that it is not good, they were trying to have a good flight for him to come early he missed it.

"They have to learn to be really serious when they come to the national team."

Okoye, the youngest of the three goalkeepers named in the 23-man list, made his senior debut for the Super Eagles in an international friendly against Brazil in October 2019.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel