Eight players in the Golden Eaglets team preparing for the U-17 African Nations Cup scheduled for this month in Morocco will not be participating in the tournament as they failed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging tests.
Our correspondent learnt the players had the age tests on February 23 in Abuja, but were not able to meet the requirements of the team.
A team official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, stated that agents and top officials of the ministry had been trying to influence the final selection of the team.
The team official said:
“We have had eight players that were dropped from the team because they failed MRI tests,” “A striker who scored five goals in three training sessions was asked to leave the team because his MRI result came out with Grade 5.
“We were the youngest team at the WAFU B tourney, so we are eager to maintain that. Some agents sent players with two different passports to the team, but thanks to the team verifying these facts, we have been able to weed them out.”
Meanwhile, the teams’ media officer, Francis Achi, said they would make sure they work hard to make Nigerians proud.
“The purpose of our camping is to improve, there is room for improvement. The target in Togo was to qualify for Morocco and we achieved that.
“The next thing to do now is to improve on our performance and give Nigerians something to cheer about.
“We want to perform well and make Nigerians proud. We tried our best in Togo getting to the final, although it was a tough one, but God crowned our efforts. For the AFCON, we will do everything possible to improve and make Nigerians proud.”
The Golden Eaglets will begin their quest for continental glory on March 14 against Tanzania, but they also have Algeria and Congo which are the remaining two teams in their first round group.
