Head Coach of the Nigeria U-17 boys (Golden Eaglets) Manu Garba has expressed confident on the ability of the technical crew to raise a squad capable of doing Nigeria proud at the forthcoming WAFU B U17 Championship in Ghana.
The 2013 FIFA U17 World Cup-winning team lead strategist has told Nigerians to discountenance stories of large failures of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests in his team and rather believe that his crew will put together a squad that will do the job of winning a ticket to next year’s Africa U17 Cup of Nations from the tournament in Ghana.
“Let me clear the air on this matter. The genuine U17 players, according to their official document made available to the NFF and the MRI tests conducted by the football body are still in the camp preparing for the WAFU B U17 tournament. When the camp opened last month, the very sincere football academies had to withdraw their players after the MRI tests they conducted showed that their players were on Grade 5. These players had to leave the camp immediately.
“Those who were not sincere and thought they could find a way through one way or the other have been exposed after the NFF conducted its own MRI a few days ago, and found the results earlier presented by their players before entering the camp did not tally with the requirements of the NFF. The NFF insists on players whose results are between Grade 1 – 4. Players on Grade 5 have been asked to leave the camp.
However, Garba denied that his camp had been thrown into confusion due to results of the MRI tests.
According to him, “The good news is that most of the players recorded good grades in their MRI results done at the NFF-approved medical centre, and the team is looking forward to a favourable outing at the WAFU B U17 tournament in Accra, Ghana.”
Another MRI test will be conducted by the medical team of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) before the beginning of the tournament.
The five-time world champions, who are title holders of the WAFU B U17 Championship, will begin the defence of their title against Burkina Faso on the May 16.
The team has so far played nine friendly games, winning six, drawing two and losing one.
