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By Mark Gleeson
JOHANNESBURG, June 18 (Reuters) - Nigeria are hoping Nwankwo Kanu and John Obi Mikel recover from illness as they seek to progress past the first phase of Africa's 2010 World Cup qualifiers on Saturday.
The English-based pair were ruled out of last weekend's 1-0 Group Four win over Equatorial Guinea because of illness but coach Shaibu Amodu said on Wednesday he was hopeful they would be fit for Saturday's return match in Abuja.
"Kanu had a cold just before the game and Obi Mikel was left behind because of fever," he said.
Nigeria are fancied to keep up their 100 per cent record and make sure they fill one of the 20 berths for the second phase which stars at the end of the year.
Burkina Faso, who also have a perfect record in qualifying, are expected to secure their progress if they win their home game against the Seychelles in Group Nine on Saturday.
Rwanda are the only other side with three wins from three games at the halfway stage of the opening qualifiers but could face a backlash in Casablanca on Saturday after they inflicted an embarrassing 3-1 defeat on Morocco last weekend.
There are 23 fixtures scheduled across the continent for a fourth successive weekend, marking the end of a marathon month of World Cup matches.
DREAM START
Burkina Faso have had a dream start under new Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte, including an away win in their opening match against Tunisia.
Tunisia recovered to win two successive games and host Burundi on Sunday seeking to move to nine points. It will be coach Roger Lemerre's final match in charge before taking over at Morocco next month.
His successor Humberto Coelho will watch the game, breaking away from his work as a Euro 2008 television analyst.
Home advantage for Africa heavyweights like Cameroon, Egypt, Angola, Ghana, Ivory Coast and the Moroccans afford them the opportunity to make up for disappointing results last weekend.
After this series of matches, the qualifiers will resume again in September.
The 12 group winners and eight best runners-up advance to the second group phase where they are split into five groups of four to decide the five representatives for South Africa.
