SUPER Eagles midfield general Mikel Obi landed in Nairobi ahead of his team mates for tomorrow’s clash with the Harambee Stars having flown there directly from London.

Mikel, 26, who missed the Super Eagles match against Mexico in Houston on Friday, had originally been expected to join his team mates in Germany and fly with the team to Kenya. However, Mikel had a problem securing a Schengen visa to enable him to enter Germany, so decided to head straight for Nairobi instead.

Yesterday, the full team landed at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi to find Mikel already in town and waiting for them. Ahmed Musa and Fengor Ogude who also both missed the Mexico game due to club commitments, however, were able to join the team in Frankfurt on Sunday and flew to Kenya with their team mates.

Kenya on the other hand has not been so lucky as skipper Dennis Oliech and goalkeeper Arnold Origi will miss tomorrow’s match. both players have accrued two yellow cards each in the qualifiers, which leads to an automatic one match suspension, which the Confederation of African Football (Caf) has already communicated to the Federation of Kenya Football (FKF).

Kenya currently sit at the bottom of Group F, four points behind Nigeria and although head coach Adel Amrouche remains unmoved, the fans are said to be nervous. With Oliech absent, coach Amrouche is set to hand the captain’s armband to Celtic midfielder Victor Wanyama, who was crowned Scottish Young Player of Year this season.