8th January, 2013
There is high degree of anxiety at the Super Eagles training camp in Faro, Portugal, as the players are eager to know if they will make the final 23-man squad to the African Cup of Nations billed to commence on 19 January in South Africa.
The list, is expected to be made public any moment from now, but the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Technical Committee wants to vet and approve of it.
According to reports from Portugal, there is panic in the camp, after four players were dropped yesterday from the 31 players in camp. The players sent packing on Monday include injured Rizespur of Turkey striker, Uche Kalu, Kilmanock FC player, Rabiu Ibrahim, Enyimba’s Henry Uche and Papa Idris of Kano Pillars.
Eagles’ spokesman, Ben Alaiya, said there is anxiety at the camp as Coach Stephen Keshi will drop four more players today.
“The other players in camp want to be on the list, which is not possible, but there are some players who are so confident they are on the list, but some are not,” he said.
“The anxiety showed on the faces of some players during the two-a-side training on Monday, and those who stayed out were wondering whether they will make it or not.
“We trained by 8pm local time yesterday, the actual time we are to play Cape Verde on Wednesday.”
Meanwhile, assistant coach of Super Eagles, Silvanus Okpala, has rubbished reports that a good number of the home-based players will be dropped.
Okpala stated that the performance of all the players have been gauged and only those adjudged to have performed better will be in South Africa irrespective of where they are based.
“It won’t matter whether they are home-based or not and the fact is that if a player is foreign-based and doesn’t do well in camp, he’ll be dropped and the same goes for the home-based players too,” Okpala told brilafm.net.
Meanwhile, as the level of uncertainty amongst the players in the Eagles’ training camp ahead of the release of the final list of players for the AFCON today, SS Lazio of Italy midfielder, Eddy Ogenyi Onazi, has said that the players have tightened their seatbelts in anticipation of the final list.
Onazi reckoned that the players have proven their fitness levels, adding that all hope is now on God. He, however, insisted that they will continue to give their best.
“We all know the responsibility that we have and so each of us has tightened our belt and we are 100 percent fit, the team are strong as well and we’ll continue to pray to God to help us reach our best,” Onazi said.
—Bimbo Ajayi