SAM Allardyce is hoping El-Hadji Diouf and Abdoulaye Faye fail to qualify for the African Nations Cup knockout stages on Tuesday night.

The Wanderers boss has put plans in place to transport his two Senegal stars from Egypt to England in time to play against Wigan in the Premiership on Saturday.

Diouf and Faye must help their country to victory over injured club-mate Jay-Jay Okocha's Nigeria tonight to continue in the competition to find the dominant football force on their continent. Anything less than a win will see their African Nations Cup campaign over and leave them free to return to the Reebok.

A Senegal win would see Nigeria go out. But that would be of little immediate help to Wanderers as Okocha is currently sidelined with a thigh injury picked up in training with the Nigeria squad which has prevented him from playing in either of the qualifying games so far.

A Senegal exit, on the other hand, would give the club a big lift as they search for a chink of good fortune amid all the gloom surrounding a mounting injury list which worsened on Saturday when Ivan Campo broke his foot against Arsenal and will almost certainly be out for the rest of the season.

Allardyce said: "If results go in our favour this week we will have two lads back from Senegal.

"It will be imperative to us to get them back as quickly as possible.

"We have that in hand and, while they'll never be available for Wednesday, but they could possibly be available for Wigan on Saturday and from then on which is obviously going to be very important to us."

Wigan's Senegalese star striker Henri Camara is similarly on standby for a quick exit from Egypt in time to play for Wigan at the Reebok on Saturday.

Allardyce said Campo future at the Reebok will have to be sorted out soon as the player's contract ends at the end of the season and he is unlikely to be fit to play in the meantime.

"It's extremely disappointing for us in the position that we are in," the manager said.

"He has just come back into the fold and started to show the talent against for us, he has got and playing to the best of his game and, sadly, that's now going to be missing from now until the end of the season.

"It's going to be a big loss for it. After all his injury problems, we finally got the Ivan Campo back that we all know and love.

"He has shown it in the last two games. He gave us a different dimension with his passing that we don't quite get otherwise.

"His contract is a difficult subject to address at the moment but, of course, it needs addressing and me and the chairman need to sit down as quickly as possible to make a decision now, one way or the other, regarding Ivan.

"That will happen in the near future."