{"id":12795,"date":"2026-11-09T02:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T02:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/jakirovic-allays-ajayi-injury-fears\/"},"modified":"2026-11-09T02:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T02:01:11","slug":"jakirovic-allays-ajayi-injury-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/jakirovic-allays-ajayi-injury-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Jakirovi\u0107 allays Ajayi injury fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Hull City<\/strong> manager Sergej Jakirovi\u0107 has eased concerns over Semi Ajayi\u2019s fitness after revealing that the Nigerian defender was among two players withdrawn with cramps during Saturday\u2019s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal.\n<\/p>\n<p>Ajayi, who delivered a solid defensive performance at the Emirates Stadium, was replaced in the 69th minute, raising concerns over his availability for Nigeria\u2019s upcoming international engagements.\n<\/p>\n<p>However, Jakirovi\u0107 clarified after the encounter that the defender\u2019s withdrawal was not caused by a serious injury.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult; we had two players with cramps, and also we tried to close the midfield zone today because Arsenal are doing everything to overload the midfield, and it is not easy to control,\u201d the Hull manager told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n<p>The clarification was reinforced by reports from Hull, which stated that Ajayi was taken off because of cramp and was not dealing with anything more serious.<\/p>\n<p>The 32-year-old had made three tackles, four clearances and one block before his substitution, helping Hull frustrate Arsenal for much of the contest.\n<\/p>\n<p>His withdrawal came three minutes before Martin \u00d8degaard scored the only goal of the game in the 72nd minute, following a save by Hull goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis.<\/p>\n<p>Ajayi\u2019s fitness will be welcome news for Nigeria as the Super Eagles prepare for their forthcoming 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying fixtures against Tanzania.\n<\/p>\n<p>The defender has been an important option in Nigeria\u2019s backline, and his availability will be valuable as the team continues preparations for the international assignment.\n<\/p>\n<p>Jakirovi\u0107\u2019s update suggests the centre-back should not face an extended spell on the sidelines, although his recovery will be monitored ahead of the next fixtures.\n<\/p>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Punch Newspapers &#8211; Latest News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hull City manager Sergej Jakirovi\u0107 has eased concerns over Semi Ajayi\u2019s fitness after revealing that the Nigerian defender was among two players withdrawn with cramps during Saturday\u2019s 1-0 defeat to&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12796,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}