Watford's Emmanuel Dennis could get AFCON call after Nigeria sack Gernot Rohr

The German had been in charge of the Super Eagles since 2016 but was relieved of his duties on Sunday, just a couple of weeks before teams are due to meet for the competition.

His sacking could now change the picture for one or two players, including Dennis, who Rohr had repeatedly overlooked despite his impressive start to life at Watford.

Since his arrival at Vicarage Road, the diverse forward has scored seven Premier League goals, but was still ignored for all recent international breaks.

In fact, he has not played for Nigeria since November 2020 when he was given a six minute cameo off the bench against Sierra Leone.

Just over a week ago, that did not look like changing any time soon, with sources familiar with the Nigerian set up explaining to the Observer that Victor Osimhen (Napoli), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester) and Paul Onuachu (Genk) were all ahead of Dennis in the pecking order under Rohr.

While it remains to be seen if the Watford man will now be selected, his chances have undoubtedly at least changed.

Augustine Eguavoen, the former captain of the Nigeria will take over Rohr's role for AFCON while they look for a permanent replacement and it will be up to him whether or not Dennis is selected.

Should the striker end up travelling to Cameroon for the tournament it would be a big blow to the Hornets who would have to prepare to be without their top scorer this season until at least the end of the group stage, which finishes January 18-20, as well as losing the likes of Imran Louza, William Troost-Ekong and possibly Adam Masina, should he be back from his injury in time.

AFCON teams are expected to convene on December 27, meaning those players would miss games against West Ham, Tottenham, Leicester in the FA Cup, Newcastle and Norwich.

Ismaila Sarr is looking increasingly unlikely to be available for the tournament with further news on his knee problem expected soon.