Fidelis Ebu
13 July 2008
interview
After starring for the Flying Eagles at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, AMBROSE EFE, was promoted to the Olympic team under coach Samson Siasia and he looked forawrd to joining the Beijing Olympic train to China next month.
And suddenly last week, Efe, the third in a family of seven was reported to be suffering from a heart problem after a medical examination and now his Olympic dream looks bleak. Undaunted, he went for another test which has now refuted the earlier result.. He bared his mind almost in tears with Sunday Vanguard. Excerpts:
Just a few days ago it was in the news that you have heart problem, what is happening presently?
Presently by the grace of God everything have turned around. With God everything is possible. Even after the first test the doctor didn't say I would not play, because I was there when the doctor confirmed it that I can play but I can't last 90 minutes. Later, I was told to start treatment maybe that I won't be able to play until after I must have received some treatment. I was even counselled that the problem was not going to be a threat to my career.
After all these, I looked back and said to myself that this is something (football). I have been playing. Even when I went to Blackburn I never had this problem. I was with the team in Portugal, I played in the Under-20; so I have played so many games since 2002 when I started playing professional football l I have never had anything like this. Never in my life have I had this type of thing before.
Have you undergone any medical test before?
Yes I have done that even in Rennes when I went on trial.
When you went to Rennes in France and went through medical test, what were you told about your medicals?
Well before I went to Rennes I know I had a knee problem which I was nursing in Canada.
So I know my knee was not fit enough to start playing active football then. So, I still tried to go since they needed me there. So I went there to give my best. So after my medical check-up, I was told that my knee was not yet healed and I wasn't not too fit to play but every other thing was okay. That was the report given to my agent.
I then told them yes, I don't have any complain about that, because I knew my knee was not well. So I came back to treat it. After that I joined the Under-23 again for the game against Ghana. Since then I have been playing 90 minutes in all games I featured till we got to Portugal.
In Portugal that was when the doctor checked my pulse and found out that my breadth some times beats and stops. He even told me that there was no problem that it was just something that happens, but that he wants to know the cause. So when we came back to the country, he asked me to follow him for a check-up.
I have been doing everything normally till the day we went to do the test where the doctor confirmed that this is the problem. He said that there is ceasing, which comes and goes. He then said the heartbeat was 48, because I could remember vividly he was communicating with us. And after passing too many test and other things I said since this has never happened to me, let me go and re-check myself.
So the coach (Samson Siasia) let me go and do another test and see what the result was going to be like again. So I went to Kaduna to tell my mother, brothers and sisters. And with prayers and every thing because this world is some how you can't see what is really the picture. It's only God that gives the picture to every man to see.
So after lots of prayers and everything, fasting and some other things they did for me, I later went to re-do the test on Monday (July7, 2008) evening about 7.30pm. On getting to the clinic, I filled the form as required of me and while waiting for the doctor, and luckily it was the same doctor that did the same test at Echo Scan in Abuja that was around to conduct the same test in Kaduna. So, when he saw me, he looked at me and said you have done this test before then what is it? I then told him that I want to re-check myself, because nothing is impossible with God.
I also said I have the believe that there is nothing wrong with me. I know myself and know how I feel and nobody else can tell me how my body is like to me. So, I know that everything is normal, because I have never complained of breathing problem. At that juncture, he said there was no point doing another test. To perhaps re-confirm, after the first test, he looked at me and asked if I have taken any drug.
I replied him no and that it was God's doing. I was with my club's chairman, Alhaji Sabo Babayaro. This was not something I went alone to do, and another doctor was also there. And we were four of us in the doctor's consulting room where the test was conducted.
After a little while, he (the doctor) looked at me and asked whether I took drugs, I replied no and I only prayed and committed everything to the hands of God. He then responded that the God I serve is a leaving God, because he was shocked over what he saw previously and what he is seeing now. He said what he is seeing now was completely different from what he saw in the previous test.
He said that everything now was okay and that I can even play full 90 minutes and that nothing would top me from play active football and that I can do anything I have in mind. Following what he observed, he gave me a clean bill of health, which I took to the coach (Siasia).
I did not end there as I took the report to another doctor, Dr Buhari, who is a personal doctor, to Makurfi and Namodi Sambo. He studied the report and based on the report and his examinations said no medical doctor could refuse me playing. His words further gave me courage that I was medically fit to return to football, because that's the only thing I know and can do.
After the final test and report, I called coach Siasia to inform him about the report, and he was very happy on phone over the good news. Everybody in camp was happy because we are like a family. Later, the doctor and Coach Siasia spoke on phone to discuss the good news I have earlier passed on to him (Siasia). Not done at that I still brought the hard copy of the medical reports ascertaining my fitness to the coach.
If you are eventually selected to be part of the team to embark on training tour to Korea, would you submit yourself for further medical screening?
Well, I'm not going to shy away from any medical test. But for me I know that I am okay, that's what I believe and there is no any medical test that can change my mind set. I feel and know that I'm okay.
What was your immediate reaction when the doctor said you have heart problem?
Well, it's not that the doctor said the heart problem could prevent me from further playing football, because I was there when he was saying it that this thing would not allow me to play for 90 minutes and not that I will not play again. But the cardiologist said if it's type three block, it means it's at the worst stage.
Since the result was released, I have been training with the team and have not experienced anything strange. My first training with the team after the test, l spent one hour 30 minutes and I did not get tired.
I was able to chase the ball and do the normal things I used to do during training. After the first training with the team everybody was surprised at my performance, and that has even given me the courage and urge to go for further test to convince those still doubting my fitness. When I was first informed about the result of my test, I was asking myself questions such as why should it be me? Why should this kind of thing happen to me?
After the result of the first test, how did you feel?
Since Thursday when I heard the news that I would not be part of the team, I felt bad, because I know that this is what I have worked hard to achieve. I felt somehow depressed, but I took it in good faith, because in life it is often said that when there is life, there is hope. There was indeed pain all over me when the news came and it showed on my face that there was something wrong somewhere.
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