The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) said on Thursday that it could not stop Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, from quitting the National team.
Enyeama, through his Instagram page on Thursday said that he was retiring from the National team.
He also said he was no more available for international duties after 13 years of National service.
But, the NFF through its Assistant Director, Communications, Ademola Olajire, said in Abuja, that the federation would not beg Enyeama to rescind his decision.
He said: “We heard about his quitting the National team on his instagram page; if somebody says he is retiring from the National team, what are we going to do, to beg him?
“We don’t know if he is leaving the National team because of his quarrel with the coach. He just said on his intagram page that he is leaving the national team. So, why should we be finding out whether he left because of the rift?
“The player has gone out of the camp, what do you want us to do? He has left the camp and he did not tell anybody that he was leaving. There is a match today (October 8), so, I don’t know what the federation should do. When somebody leaves the national team, what can we do about it?
The relationship between Enyeama and Coach Sunday Oliseh had gone sour following the stripping of the goalkeeper as the team’s captain and the selection of Ahmed Musa as the new skipper.
The quarrel had erupted on Tuesday at the team’s camp in Belgium where the team had been preparing for two friendly matches billed for Thursday October 8 and Sunday, October 11, against DR Congo and Cameroon respectively.
Enyeama had reported late to camp, after staying back in Nigeria last weekend to be involved in the burial ceremony of his late mother in Uyo, Akwa Ibom.
But, having missed the team’s last set of games against Tanzania and Niger, Oliseh said there was a need to have a player who was regular in the team as the captain.
Oliseh had also pointed out that the performance of Musa in recent matches had earned him the captain’s arm band.
The player had first hinted after the World Cup match with the France National team, the Blues in Brazil in 2014, that he would quit the National but that it was only his family could make him reconsider changing his mind.
The Eagles lost that match 0-2.
