Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen says the Super Eagles need to correct the mistakes they made during the opening phase of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, if they are to have any hope of returning to contention for a place at the tournament in the Americas.
Nigeria, who missed the last World Cup after losing in qualifying to Ghana in a two-legged playoff, got off to a horrendous start after drawing three of their opening four games, and face group leaders Rwanda, whom they trail by four points, on Friday.
Osimhen, who missed almost all of those games, is back and hoping to inspire his teammates to make amends, telling the John Obi Mikel's 'Obi One' podcast: "We have to give everything.
"It is the dream of every youngster to be at the World Cup, mine is no exception. I want to be there, just like every other of my Super Eagles teammates and we are really looking forward to the game against Rwanda to try to correct all the mistakes we have made in the past World Cup qualifiers so for me, we will be ready."
Nigeria's first four games were prosecuted with two different coaches. Jose Peseiro was in charge for the first two which ended in draws, while Finidi George took the reins for the last two, losing to Benin Republic and drawing at home against South Africa. Those results cost him his job.
Now, Eric Sekou Chelle is at the helm and Osimhen says the new man can reinvigorate the team: "He called me, we spoke. I know him from the previous AFCON and what he did with the Mali team. We watched Mali and he's a coach that really loves to play, that really loves to flight. Similar to me.
"From what he said to me, he is going to be very, very demanding. He said, 'I need you guys to come and work with me to achieve amazing things with Nigeria. And I think you guys have the quality to do it. But the one who doesn't fight for every ball, the one who doesn't run will not play'. He was clear with me about that."
The Galatasaray forward, who is known as a fighter on the field, has taken that to heart. Osimhen was one of the first players to report to Nigeria's lodgings in Rwanda when camp opened early this week, arriving barely 24 hours after helping Gala to a league win over the weekend.
He said: "Nigeria is a big country, with millions of football players. So if you are privileged to put on the jersey, you have to give everything. Now we have a coach that is ready to give everything and I believe we all have to follow his example and give everything."
Without the forward, Nigeria have struggled to find goals. They have scored only four goals and leaked five after four games. By contrast, at this stage of the previous qualifiers, they had scored two more, with Osimhen accounting for two of those goals, forcing one own goal and two assists for a total of five goal contributions.
It is exactly the sort of fighting contribution that Nigerians, and the coach expect from Osimhen and the rest of the team.
"We don't expect any games to be easy from now on, starting with this one against Rwanda," said fellow forward Moses Simon.
"We are happy to have Victor back with us again. We need every player to be at their best and we have to be ready to fight from start to finish because we have to win all our games now."
Aside from Rwanda, Nigeria will also have to get past Zimbabwe with a win, and they face them on Tues March 25th.