Ndidi, Iheanacho, Iwobi, Three Others amongst Early Arrivals as Eagles Camp Opens

WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS

Femi Solaja

Ahead of the World Cup 2022 qualifying matches beginning from this Friday, the camp of the Super Eagles in Lagos bubbled into life with the arrival of three English Premier League players, Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi.

Other early early birds in camp include South Africa-based Daniel Akpeyi and home-based Abia Warriors’ Adekunle Adeleke.

According to Super Eagles Media Officer, Babafemi Raji, most of the invited players are expected to arrive camp today.

All eyes were initially on invited players from the English Premier League and others in the United Kingdom after authorities of the league body declined to allow players from the topflight to travel to play international games for their respective nations due to hike in Coronavirus Delta variant.

But with assurances from the Nigerian federation not to risk these stars in the Match-Day 2 fixture of the Qatar 2022 qualifiers against Cape Verde, the likes of Kelechi ‘Seniorman’ Iheanacho and Wilfred Ndidi of Leicester City and Alex Iwobi of Everton promptly arrived Lagos yesterday after playing for their respective clubs on Saturday.

The Super Eagles camp officially opened yesterday with team officials including backroom staff to receive the players on arrival.

“The coach is very much in touch with all the invited players and all their travel details have been sorted out and what we expect now is total victory for the team as we look ahead to the matches at hand,” an official of the team disclosed yesterday in a telephone interview with THISDAY.

The official also confirmed that the likes of Joe Aribo and Leon Balogun who were part of Rangers’ hard earned win against rivals, Celtic yesterday evening won’t arrive camp until Tuesday or Wednesday due to protocols they will have to undergo after the match.

The same scenario applies to the duo of William Troost-Ekong and Oghenekaro Etebo who were part of the Watford side that lost against Tottenham Hotspurs yesterday.

The NFF’s Plan B is still much alive owing to the likelihood of most of the players from the United Kingdom to return to their clubs after Nigeria’s home match against Liberia in Lagos this Friday.

“This was partly the reason why the coach had to spread his dragnets to virtually other European leagues to get the other Nigerian players not encumbered by the stiff Covid restrictions on players that traveled to countries on risk list to isolate for 10 days on return to England,” observed the official.

According to the plan put together by NFF, the match at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on Friday, 3rd September will kick-off by 5pm while the rest Eagles not based in UK and Italy will have to travel to the island of Mindelo to tango with the Blue Sharks of Cape Verde on Tuesday, 7th September.