The handler of Team Nigeria at the ongoing ITTF World Table Tennis Championship (WTTC) in South Korea, Segun Toriola, has blamed the country's poor outing on the absence of star-player, Aruna Quadri.

Aruna withdrew from the tournament following the illness he had few days to the competition and his absence may have affected the fortunes of Nigeria in the Asian city of Busan.

Reacting to Nigeria's lacklustre outing, the table tennis legend said "It is obvious that the absence of Aruna affected the team's performance because being a top player, his presence alone would have motivated his teammates to do well," he said.

Nigeria's men team seeded 21 lost all their four matches against Japan, Chinese Taipei, Madagascar and Czech Republic in group 5 while the women team seeded 31 also ended the group stage without a win.

Madagascar's men seed 41 won only one against Nigeria and lost three matches against Japan, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic in the same group 5.

Meanwhile, Egypt women's team led by Dina Meshref survived to remain as the only African team to qualify to the second round of the ongoing 2024 ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships (WTTTC) in South Korea.

After a series of four group-stage matches, they won three and lost one to advance to the next round.

However, Egypt's men seeded 10 could not move to the knockout stage after winning one against Thailand and losing three against Portugal, Romania and Iran.