Osanga boost for Heartland

Osanga has missed the latter stages of Heartland's run to the competition's Final, even sparking a club versus country dispute between the club and Flying Eagles coach Samson Siasia at one point.

But he returned to the side after the national Under-20 side's disastrous outing in Egypt, and has been training with the team at their Nnewi hide-out.

"It is good to be back, as I wanted to come and help my team qualify for the final, but that did not happen because i was not released," Osanga told KickOffNigeria.com.

His return could not have come at a better time for Heartland, who will be missing the services of John Owoeri and Stanley Okoro.

"Even when they were here, I was a starter so I don’t expect it to be any different," Osanga said. "But any team wants to have all their best players available and we would have liked to have the two of them with us.

"But there is nothing we can do. The team got to the final without me, so I believe we can also win the competition without them."

Osanga will be an unknown quantity for the Congolese, as he took no part in the two games against them during the group stages, but he says it will make little difference.

"Nobody ever really knows any player. As long as you do your best on the pitch, it doesn’t matter if they know you or not," he said.

The game comes up in Owerri on Sunday.