By Aubrey Sumbuleta BBC Sport, Blantyre

Kanyenda is in the team

Malawi coach Allan Gillet has named an 18-man squad to play Nigeria in Saturday's Nations Cup qualifiers against Nigeria in Abuja.

Apart from three foreign based professionals, Gillet has maintained a locally based squad that beat Botswana last weekend in Gaborone.

Gillet included striker Esau Kanyenda of FC Rostov in Russia, Russel Mwafulirwa of Jomo Cosmos in South Africa and Dan Chitsulo, who plays for FC Cologne in Germany.

However, the team will miss the services of Canadian based captain Peter Mponda and midfielder Macdonald Yobe.

They were not allowed to join the squad because of presence of the Sars virus in the north American country.

Malawi has banned visitors from that country.

The Flames, who have departed for Nigeria, lost 0-1 to the Super Eagles during their home tie in March.

But coach Gillet said the defeat will not deter them from pulling off an upset in Abuja.

"In football, anything can happen. Who could imagine that we could lose by a single goal to the Nigerians in Blantyre three months ago?

"In football, you can never say die," he said.