Iheanacho missed out of the Africa Under-20 championship in Senegal in March due to injury as Nigeria won the top prize. He has however been included in Manu’s provisional 30-man list of players for the Under-20 World Cup following a barnstorming display for Manchester City’s under-18s in the FA Youth Cup final defeat to Chelsea on April 27.
Manu has expressed optimism that City will release the player to join the rest of the Nigerian squad for the tournament.
“They (Manchester City) have always promised to release him for the World Cup as soon as he gets fit.
“The fact that he played all 90 minutes in the second leg of the (FA Youth Cup in England against Chelsea) is a good development.
“I have been in contact with him all through and I think that by the time he joins us in camp, we will see how he will be able to adapt because with what we saw him do against Chelsea, it seems almost certain that he has completely recovered from the injury.
“I pray there will be no recurrence (of the injury) but this is a good development,” he told supersport.com
Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles will conclude their final phase of preparations for the 2015 Fifa Under-20 World Cup in Germany.
The Flying Eagles will face North Korea, Hungary and Brazil in the preliminary stages of the competition.
Announcing the news via its official website on Friday, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) through General Secretary, Mohammed Sanusi revealed that the contingent which includes 25 players and 10 officials will leave the country on Saturday.
“Fifa have finally been able to secure seats on Lufthansa for the players and officials and they will all travel on Saturday,” Sanusi was quoted as saying on www.thenff.com on Friday.
Arrangements have been made to move the delegation from Frankfurt to Nuremberg, the German city where they will be based for three weeks before they fly to New Zealand on May 25.
Five of the overseas-based players will join the team in Germany to take the players’ tally to 30, out of which the final list of 21 will emerge for the World Cup in two weeks.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Musa Yahaya and Chidera Ezeh of FC Porto in Portugal are flying out with the team from Abuja.
Flying Eagles’ provisional list
Goalkeepers: Adamu Abubakar (Flash FC); Dele Alampasu (Football College Academy); Joshua Enaholo (MFM FC); Olorunleke Ojo (Giwa FC)
Defenders: Saheed Abdul-Ganiyu (Ace Academy); Monsuru Bashiru (MFM FC); Zaharaddeen Bello (Dabo Babes Academy); Musa Muhammed (FC Heart Academy); Abdullahi Mustapha (Spotlight FC); Onyinye Ndidi (KRC Genk, Belgium); Samuel Okon (Greater Tomorrow Academy); Prince Omego (Apapa Golden Stars)
Midfielders: Abdullahi Alfa (Football College Academy); Bernard Bulbwa (Shuttle Sports Academy); Akinjide Idowu (Nigeria Young Academy); Ifeanyi Ifeanyi (Water FC); Wasiu Jimoh (Kwara Academy); Ifeanyi Mathew (El-Kanemi Warriors); Chidiebere Nwakali (Manchester City, England); Kingsley Sokari (Enyimba FC); Musa Yahaya (Tottenham Hotspur, England)
Forwards: Alhassan Abdullahi (FC Heart Academy); Taiwo Awoniyi (Imperial Academy); Chidera Ezeh (FC Porto, Portugal); Saviour Godwin (FC Sports); Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City, England); Success Isaac (Granada FC, Spain); Christian Pyagbara (Dolphins FC); Usman Sale (Wikki Tourists); Moses Simon (KAA Gent, Belgium)
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