Vanguard (Lagos)

Nigeria: Mikel Obi Drops Out of World Cup?

Abuja — Fears heightened over the week end that Chelsea FC and Eagles' midfielder, John Mikel Obi might not fully recover from injury before the final submission of names of 23 players to FIFA for next month's 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Super Eagles' Technical Adviser, Lars Lagerback is not comfortable with the development as he has told the Nigeria Football Association, NFA officials that he wants to know before the end of todaywhether or not the player would be fully fit to be in the squad.

As a result therefore, the NFA has quickly dispatched doctors and officials to visit the player who is still in London where he is under-going rehabilitation.

A source at the NFA said that whereas, all the other players who were not able to join the team at the Presidential send forth dinner over the weekend were already waiting at the Five Lakes Hotel and Country Club in Essex, the convalescing Mikel remained in London.

"The Eagles' Technical Adviser, Lars Lagerback is not comfortable with the situation, and he has told NFA officials that he wants to know before the end of tomorrow (Tuesday) whether the Chelsea player would be fully fit or not", a dependable NFA source said.

The source said Lagerback is insisting that he can only bank on the very players he is seeing and can personally ascertain their physical fitness as against those he is yet to meet.

Remarkably, the Eagles have arrived in London and have settled down to the business of final preparation for the 2010 World Cup finals. The team would have just nine days of training before leaving for South Africa to join the rest of the teams for the Mundial.

Mikel's injury has however separated him from being part of the team's training which began Saturday evening and is a sure absentee for the Super Eagles' friendly against Saudi Arabia in Wattens, Austria tomorrow.


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Comments 1 to 1 of 1 Post a comment

  • adunbarintopemartins
    May 25 2010, 20:02

    Mikel will make it to the word cup,i bet you