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| stephen keshi |
Embattled Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, has admitted that his worries and fears ahead of the Eagles’ World Cup qualifiers and Brazil 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup campaign are the possibility of his players staying out of injury. He expressed disappointment that recuperating Russian-based Nigerian forward, Emmanuel Emenike, would not be part of the busy June schedules.
The Eagles gaffer, fielding questions from the media at the Glass House recently, noted that the report about Chelsea’s midfielder, John Mikel Obi, returning to training was very gladdening, confessing that the only thing that would threaten his preparations and prosecution of the matches would be injuries to players. Asked how prepared he is for the World Cup qualifiers and Confederations Cup, Keshi replied: “We are preparing, starting with the training camp in Germany, playing friendly a match against Mexico.
All of them are part of the preparation for the World Cup qualifiers. My only worry as I use to say, is the good health of all my invited players. “Mikel has been down but thank God, I learnt that he would soon resume training. Emenike’s injury has been a source of worry to me. My fears are whether all of them would remain injury free. If they are in a very good health, then, I don’t have any problem because they will give me what I want,” he noted.
Did he attempt to discover more Nigerian players when he travelled outside the country, Keshi said he only visited one-capped Super Eagles’ striker, Bright Dike, to ascertain how he was fairing with his knee injury, adding: “I did not travel to search for players. However, the only player I saw in America was Bright Dike. I wanted to see how is fairing with his knees.
He is recovering very well.” With the performance of Danny Shittu with English League Championship, are there chances of his return, Keshi replied: “I have always said that as far as a Nigerian player is playing actively well, he still have chances of getting my invitation to play for the Super Eagles provided he wants to play. We don’t want to bring in names, but quality that can bring something to make Nigerians happy.”
The Eagles’ gaffer also lamented the crashing out of Nigerian clubs from the CAF continental campaigns, noting that it has never been as bad as we have it this year. His words: “It is not just a good development for the game in the country. I think this is the first time Nigerian clubs are crashing out at that stage of the tournament. We really need to go back to the drawing board and see how we can start playing football in this country.
Honestly, I don’t think we are playing football any longer.” He has a few words of encouragements for the Stamford Bridge Nigerian winger, Victor Moses, noting: “He should keep up the tempo very high, but don’t forget that he is paid to do the scoring. However, I’m happy for him.
source:sunews
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