NAPOLI manager Walter Mazzarri has hinted that he could drop Victor Osimhen to the bench for tomorrow night’s UEFA Champions League clash against Sporting Braga at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona over the Super Eagles striker’s involvement with the CAF Awards.
The award ceremony will be held tonight in Marrakech, with Osimhen flying in to the Moroccan city today in a private jet as he is one of the three nominees for African Player of the Year along with Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi.
Osimhen missed a training session today ahead of the Champions League fixture and Mazzarri may consider this when naming his starting line-up tomorrow.
Napoli are second behind already qualified Real Madrid in their group and only need to avoid defeat to advance to the round of 16.
Mazzarri told Sky Sport Italia, via TuttoNapoli, that Osimhen ‘did what he had to’.
“I will talk to him tomorrow and understand if he can start,” the Napoli head coach said.
“The AFCON is around the corner too, so we know we must do without him for a while, we have two good players like Giacomo Raspadori and Giovanni Simeone.”
Napoli have lost four of their opening seven Serie A games at home and suffered three consecutive defeats with Mazzarri in charge.
Osimhen has scored six goals in 14 appearances in all competitions with Napoli so far this season and started the last two games after missing several weeks due to a hamstring injury.
