Twelve out of 23 players expected to feature for the national team against the Harambee Stars of Kenya on Saturday started training in Calabar on Monday evening.
Apart from the nine home-based named earlier on Sunday by Coach Stephen Keshi, Israeli based keeper, Austin Ejide, Ukraine based midfielder Babatunde Michael and Velaranga of Norway combative midfielder, Fegor Ogude, were the early callers at the team’s camp at Transcorp Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar.
Ogude flew with the team from Abuja to Calabar, while Ejide joined up about an hour after the team’s arrival. Michael was just on time to hop into the team’s bus for the day’s training session.
The team departed for training at about 3:30pm at the Abaraham Ordia Sports Complex inside the University of Calabar and will repeat same tomorrow and all through the days leading to the match against Harambee Stars.
Head Coach Stephen Keshi says he expects a full house by Tuesday morning, adding that training will be the same time and all players expected should have been in, as he needs a good number of training sessions for the team to jell against Kenya. “We would have a full house for Tuesday’s evening training and from there we see how ready the players are for the task at hand”, he declared.
The team had a light training session with the UNICAL Football team before it went into its own session that was supervised by Keshi and his assistants.
Keshi’s Nine NPL Stars: Chigozie Agbim, Godfrey Oboabona, Azubuike Egwueke, Gabriel Reuben, Sunday Mba, Solomon Kwambe, Benjamin Francis, Obinna Nwachukw, Gambo Mohammed.
Source: Vanguard