Augustine Eguavoen, a former Nigeria head coach has admitted that the absence of Wilfred Ndidi ahead of the 2022 World Cup playoffs against Ghana affected the team.
The Leicester City midfielder was originally named on the Nigeria squad for the two-legged games but missed the games after suffering a knee injury in a Europa Conference League round of 16 tie at Rennes on March 17.
However, Nigeria's hopes of playing in the 2022 Mundial was crashed after drawing 1-1 with the Black Stars at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium having secured a 0-0 in the first leg at the Baba Yara Stadium.
"Imagine a Ghana without a Partey. Losing Ndidi was, first of all, a problem and then we make amends by bringing in Bonke who is a ball winner and then he got injured as well," Eguavoen said on SuperSport's Monday Night Football.
"Onyeka was also on top of his game, also got injured so he had a bit of a problem.
"Etebo, who's just coming back from injury, played well in Kumasi when he came in but he only had to give us his best for the first sixty minutes.
"If you look at the bench now who would have come in? It's just to change formation within the players. At 1-1, we needed to get that one goal but it just didn't happen."
Ndidi has undergone surgery and won't play competitively for Leicester City until the start of the 2022-2023 season.