NFA chairman Dominic Oneya said that they "have a good understanding with Arsenal regarding the release of the player" and went on to suggest that seeing him playing welll for us against Watford helped persuade them that staying with Arsenal another week will not do his form any harm.

This comes only a day or two after another NFA official was quoted as saying that Kanu was required for a friendly in Africa on Tuesday coming. As always, one has to be a bit careful not to take everything the NFA say as gospel (seeing as their various spokesmen usually hold at least 2 diametrically opposed positions)

It'll be good if Kanu's around, because there are bound to be a few choruses of "Chim chiminee" that afternoon.

See DailySoccer for AFP report.

We don't know when (or if) Lauren's off to the Nations Cup. But he could well still be injured.