Nigeria Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle has confirmed that Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman will not be available for the upcoming international friendlies against Poland and Portugal next month.

The Super Eagles are scheduled to face Poland on June 3 and Portugal on June 10, following their Unity Cup triumph. Nigeria claimed a fourth Unity Cup title after a commanding 3-0 victory over Jamaica in the final on Saturday.

Two key absentees

Despite both players being named in the original squad, Chelle revealed that Osimhen and Lookman will miss the fixtures for separate reasons.

On Osimhen, Chelle explained that a potential club move is behind the decision to leave the striker out.

"Victor Osimhen maybe he is about to change club so I prefer he stays at home because if he plays and is not at 100 percent is not good,"

Lookman, meanwhile, has been excused at the request of Atletico, with Chelle citing fatigue as the reason the winger will sit out both matches.

Chelle also flagged visa complications affecting other squad members. "We have lots of problems because some players have visa issues, players like (Samson) Tijani and (Abdullahi) Yusuf," he said, adding that Nigeria will travel with 18 players.

Chelle relishes the challenge

Despite the absentees, Chelle expressed genuine excitement about testing his squad against two of Europe's stronger nations — particularly Portugal, whom he called perhaps the best team in the world.

"We will go to the two games to fight and if we win we win and if we lose we lose. They have to work to beat us," he said. "Poland is a good team, Portugal maybe the best team in the world, so this is a great challenge for us and I want to go to their countries and beat them because I'm sad we wouldn't be at the World Cup and maybe this would be something very good for me."

The two former African Players of the Year will be sorely missed, but Chelle appears determined to use the fixtures as an opportunity to assess the depth of his squad ahead of future competitions.