Top team official, Emmanuel Attah, told MTNFootball.com: “Training lasted for about two hours. Mikel trained for only 40 minutes, taking part in the warm-up as well as the shooting exercises, before he was rested and an ice pack placed around his knee, which he recently operated on.
“He told the doctor that he is still feeling some pains.”
Mikel also trained with the team for a limited time on Thursday before he retired to the sidelines to have an ice pack on his knee.
Attah said the team will now have to wait till Saturday (today) to know whether Mikel will feature in Sunday’s final warm-up game against North Korea in Tembisa, near Johannesburg.
“I cannot say whether he will be fit for the match on Sunday. We just have to wait and see,” he said.
A confident coach Lars Lagerback had disclosed after the Colombia friendly in London at the weekend that Mikel will play a part in the Korea tune-up game.
Keen followers of the Super Eagles had worried that Nigeria were taking a big chance on Mikel after he did not play in the team’s two build-up games against Saudi Arabia and Colombia.
He was the last player to join up with the rest of the squad at their training camp in Essex, England, last week.
Left back Elderson Echiejile also trained apart from the rest of the squad yesterday after he sprained his ankle in the previous day’s training, Attah disclosed.
In the meantime, Attah added that Lars Lagerback told the team that he was satisfied with the attitude to work of Wolfsburg striker Obafemi Martins even after it was reported that the coach has been far from impressed with the player.
“Lagerback is happy with Martins. There is no problem between the coach and the player. He has therefore told all the players to disregard all they hear or read in the press,” said Attah.
“We remain focussed to reach our target in South Africa and will not allow anything to distract us.”
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