Chief Coach of the Super Eagles, Stephen Keshi has disclosed that he
would on Saturday release the list of home-based players that would be
part of the 8 September South Africa 2013 Nations Cup qualifier against
the Lone Star of Liberia in Monrovia.
The former Hawks of Togo
coach said he would prune the number of home-based players in the team
to complement the 11 foreign-based players earlier invited for the
crucial encounter. stating that he would only pick the best.
According
to him “I would release the final list of players that would be part of
my plans for the Liberia clash on Saturday because I want a very
formidable team”.
Meanwhile, he said the exclusion of Chelsea
midfielder, Mikel Obi from his list of foreign-based players for the
clash was not based on sentiment.
Keshi noted that he and the
Nigeria Football Federation, NFF have no problem as reported by the
media.
The coach said that he and Mikel had an understanding,
adding that the Chelsea of England player called him all the time.
“I
told him, if you come you must give me 100 per cent but we might be
playing on the artificial turf, and he said the turf idea was not so
good but that I should let him talk to his doctor.
“He called me
back four days later and said, ‘Coach, I don’t think I can play because
of the turf, please if there is any other game, I will like to come’.
“I
said okay, since we have another match in October, we can bring him in
but that is not a guarantee,” Keshi said.
The Super Eagles handler
explained that Osaze’s case was entirely different from Mikel’s,
claiming that Osaze never responded to his calls.
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