Veteran Nigeria midfielder Ngozi Okobi was the biggest absentee from Nigeria's squad for the FIFA Women's World Cup in July, as coach Randy Waldrum named a roster led by Barcelona's Women's Champions League winner Asisat Oshoala.
Long-standing defender Onome Ebi, along with standout youngster Blessing Demehin, was named in his final 23-person list, but it was the absence of Okobi, who has played for Nigeria since she was 16, that shocked fans.
Despite playing very few minutes for the Super Falcons in 2023, the 29-year-old said on social media: "The more tag notifications I get on my phone, the more I keep crying.
"What a show of love. I know I am always underrated by the people I work with, I never knew my fans, family and loved ones still believe in me. Thank you all."
She added: "It is broken to be left out. But what can I do, NOTHING."
In place of the Levante player, the American called up Deborah Abiodun from Rivers Angels in the Nigerian women's league. The 19-year-old recently committed to Waldrum's University of Pittsburgh Women's Soccer program where Waldrum is the head coach, a job he combines with his Nigeria duties.
While the coach has not been available so far to explain his choices, there were suggestions that he may have been pressured to drop the midfielder.
However, an NFF official told ESPN that that was not the case: "This is totally Randy's list, he picked the players himself after consulting with the technical director and senior members of his technical staff."
Explaining further, the official, who did not want to be named, added that Waldrum's hand was forced by circumstances to pick his team almost blind: "The original program was for the team to begin camping in early June, like the other African teams, and use the first two weeks of the camp for fitness training.
"This would allow the coach to see which players were in shape before beginning tactical sessions in the third week."
That plan had to be scrapped because of the NFF's financial situation. The team are now expected to hold a 15-day camp in Australia beginning on July 4, ahead of their opening game on July 20.
As a result, Waldrum was forced to make a choice of two out of the trio of Okobi, Ordega and Abiodun. In the end, it came down to fitness from previous games.
The source said: "Randy knows how good Okobi is, but the issue is that from previous games, he believes he only gets about fifteen minutes to half an hour of productivity from her before she fades out of the game, and he wanted more than that.
"Without a full training camp to assess everyone's fitness, he went with the evidence of previous matches."
Abiodun, like teammate Demehin, shone during the Under 20 World Cup, and earned promotion to the senior side. She will now be expected to shoulder some of the responsibility of the missing veteran.
But there is more to the squad than just the Okobi snub. Captain and defender Ebi, who made her first World Cup in 2003, will make her sixth trip to the Finals, becoming one of just three women to do so. Japan's Homare Sawa and Brazil's Formiga are the only other two.
Against Olympic champions Canada, along with co-hosts Australia and the Republic of Ireland, the Super Falcons face a daunting task to make it out of the group stages, with expectations from home high for them to not just to do so, but to go as far as the semifinals in the biggest Women's World Cup so far, with 32 teams.
"It's scary, to be honest," Waldrum told the media. "Our first two games are brutal. Many people have our group ranked as the hardest in the World Cup."
True as that may be, it is not an excuse that Nigerians will want to hear when the chips are down.
SUPER FALCONS SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Chiamaka Nnadozie (Paris FC, France); Tochukwu Oluehi (Hakkarigucu Spor FC, Turkey); Yewande Balogun (AS Saint-Etienne, France)
Defenders: Onome Ebi (Abia Angels); Osinachi Ohale (Deportivo Alaves, Spain); Glory Ogbonna (Besiktas JK, Turkey); Ashleigh Plumptre (Leicester City, England); Rofiat Imuran (Stade de Reims, France); Michelle Alozie (Houston Dash, USA); Oluwatosin Demehin (Stade de Reims, France)
Midfielders: Halimatu Ayinde (Rosengard FC, Sweden); Rasheedat Ajibade (Atletico Madrid, Spain); Toni Payne (Sevilla FC, Spain); Christy Ucheibe (SL Benfica, Portugal); Deborah Abiodun (Rivers Angels); Jennifer Echegini (Florida State University, USA)
Forwards: Uchenna Kanu (Racing Louisville, Kentucky, USA); Gift Monday (UDG Tenerife, Spain); Ifeoma Onumonu (NY/NJ Gotham FC, USA); Asisat Oshoala (Barcelona Femenin, Spain); Desire Oparanozie (Wuhan Chegu Jianghan, China); Francisca Ordega (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Esther Okoronkwo (AS Saint-Etienne, France)