Manu to pick best 20 out of 700 players

The screening commenced with the 35 invited players but there has been room for uninvited players within the age to also attend.
In the process, 17 of the 35 players were dropped in the first week while 12 out of over 500 uninvited players scaled the first hurdle.
Speaking to Daily Trust, Garba said his plan is to pick 20 good players from the screening and add them to some of the former U-17 players who could not make the World Cup squad because they failed the MRI test.
He said by the time he is done with the screening exercise, he and his assistants would sit down and look at the positions of the selected players and decide on other players to be invited for the camping proper.
“We have seen more than 700 players. For now, we have found no fewer than 20 good players that I am sure can at least start the camping for us. This to me is very encouraging.
“By the time we check their positions with the players we already have on ground, I believe we would be able to get a very strong team that would start the camping proper”.
The coach also said apart from the fact that players from all corners of the country have attended the screening in Abuja, the time is really too short for the screening exercise to move to other parts of the country.
He said after the Abuja screening, the selected players and those already on ground would move to camp preparatory to the African Championship qualifiers.