Eagles open camp for Zambia WCQ clash

Nigeria’s Super Eagles preparations for their first 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying game against Zambia on October 9 is set to begin with players expected to start arriving the team’s Abuja camp later today.
Some of the players expected to arrive early include home based stars Ikechukwu Ezenwa of Ifeanyi Ubah FC and Kano Pillars’ Jamiu Alimi, both will be playing their final NPFL game with their various clubs today and will be heading to the capital city immediately afterwards.
Man of the moment and match winner against Tanzania in Eagles last outing Kelechi Iheanacho will be involved as his club Manchester City tackle Tottenham in the English Premier League so will be Leicester City’s Ahmed Musa but notwithstanding both players should be in camp by tomorrow, a team official told Fever Pitch.
Skipper Mikel Obi is now an injury doubt for what is expected to be a cracking game after Chelsea boss Antonio Conte revealed the midfielder is injured. “Mikel is out with a small muscular problem,” Conte announced Friday.
Meanwhile, The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has assured Nigerians that it had concluded arrangements on getting players and officials of the team to Abuja for the preparations of the highly important encounter against the Chipolopolo.
It also said that it has the capacity and capability to airlift Eagles to and from Zambia and getting the players back to their various Clubs after the match in Ndola on October 9.
In a statement, the NFF condemned, in very strong terms, a report in some media outlets including America’s Cable News Network (CNN) that it cannot fly the Super Eagles to Zambia because of financial crunch.
“While admitting financial challenges as a result of the current state of the economy, the NFF expressed solid faith that matters would never get to the point of Nigeria being unable to get its National Team to the venue of a competitive match or championship,” the statement read.
The NFF viewed the report as “baseless, misleading and despicable, not only against Nigerian football, but against the Nigerian nation”. It insisted that the report was the concoction of an idle mind and challenged the purveyors of the falsehood to name their source.