Portsmouth's John Utaka, FC Zurich's Onyekachi Okonkwo and Salzburg's Rabiu Afolabi have been handed Nigeria recalls by Technical Adviser Lars Lagerback.
Outside of that, there were no surprises in Lagerback's list of 44, released by the NFF on Sunday, with only three players getting first time call ups.
Advocates of more players from the domestic league would be placated after the Swede included six players from the Nigeria Premier League, led by top scorer Ahmed Musa.
But there was no place for out-of-form fullback Chibuzor Okonkwo, who has been upstaged in the home-based Super Eagles team by the impressive Terna Suswan of Lobi Stars.
Rising midfielder Rabiu Ibrahim's lack of club action also counted against him, as he was not included. But Haruna Lukman, who has locked down a place in the Monaco midfield, gets a chance to impress the new coach in camp.
The players are to report to camp in the United Kingdom from April 27 and 28.
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Lars Lagerback believes that Nigeria captain Nwankwo Kanu is a legend and has a good chance of leading the Super Eagles to the World Cup.
Opinion in Nigeria is divided as to whether the 33 year old Portsmouth striker should be in the squad to the World Cup, especially as he only managed one game during the African Nations Cup in Angola.
But Lagerback says he would like to work with the former Iwuanyanwu Nationale forward.
"I would like to work with Kanu because for me he is a kind of a legend. I can remember when I led Sweden to play against Nigeria at the 2002 World Cup, he was a fantastic player," Lagerback said in an interview with FIFA, com.
Emmanuel Adebayor has retired from international football with Togo after describing himself as “still haunted” by the terrorist attack on the team bus at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Three people were killed – the bus driver, an assistant coach and a press officer – when gunmen fired on the coach in an Angolan exclave, also maiming nine other people. The Manchester City striker described this year as the “worst of my life” and released a statement through the club to announce that the attack had persuaded him to end his international career at 26.
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Portsmouth's John Utaka, FC Zurich's Onyekachi Okonkwo and Salzburg's Rabiu Afolabi have been handed Nigeria recalls by Technical Adviser Lars Lagerback.
But there was no place for out-of-form fullback Chibuzor Okonkwo, who has been upstaged in the home-based Super Eagles team by the impressive Terna Suswan of Lobi Stars.
