Nigeria will be hugely depleted for Saturday’s
U17 AFCON qualifier at home against Niger after
a staggering 26 players out of 60 failed the
mandatory MRI screening conducted last week.
A top official said that what is disturbing is not
only the high number of those who failed the age
test, but the quality of those who will not be
eligible as the Eaglets starting XI have been
completely wiped out with only two surviving
players.
“It is a disaster,” exclaimed one devastated
official.
“Virtually the first team the coaches have been
working on have been disqualified. It’s a serious
problem.” We have exclusively gathered that top
NFF officials have now gone into panic mode
with blames being traded over “this mass
failure”.
Several of the players were in tears and total
shock when the final results came through this
morning.
The affected players have since quit the team’s
training camp in Abuja for their various bases.
Among those who flung the age test was a star
striker, who came through the national U15 team
and has been outstanding in training leading up
to Saturday’s AFCON qualifier.
Another promising player disqualified only
recently forced his way into the starting XI of
coach Manu Garba’s team after a late call-up.
As first reported only by AfricanFootball.com, the
Confederation of African Football (CAF) have
moved swiftly to ensure a much more
transparent management of this MRI test by
deploying independent doctors to the various
member-associations.
In the case of Nigeria, an Egyptian doctor
supervised the screening exercise last week.
Nigeria have won the FIFA U17 World Cup a
record five times – 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013 and
2015
http://www.vanguardngr.com/shocker-26-eaglets-fail-
mri-test