Wilfred Ndidi: Nigeria star escapes World Cup play-off final ban after suspension U-turn | OneFootball

Super Eagles thought they would be without a star player

Nigeria midfielder Wilfred Ndidi will be able to play in the World Cup qualifying play-off final against the DR Congo, despite being initially suspended.

Previous reports stated that players who received two cautions during the qualification stage would receive a suspension, and Eric Chelle thought his worst fears had been realised when the former Leicester City midfielder picked up a yellow against Gabon in the play-off semi-final.

Ndidi’s first yellow came against Benin in 2024, where the Super Eagles emerged 3-0 victors.

Now, however, Nigeria announced on Saturday that Ndidi will in fact be able to play in the final, with CAF ruling that yellow cards received in the standard qualifiers did not count for the play-offs.

As such, it leaves Ndidi with just one yellow card to his name, not two.

Nigeria would go on to miss out on automatic qualification to next year’s World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States, with South Africa pipping them to top Group D.

That meant that Nigeria were forced into a four-team mini-tournament, where the four top-ranked runners-up would face off for the chance to be Africa’s representative at the inter-confederation play-offs in March next year, which will be held in Mexico.

Nigeria defeated Gabon on Thursday to book their place in the final in Rabat this Sunday, while the DR Congo left it late to see off Cameroon in the later game.