A final batch of six players passed the MRI scan before the Nigeria U-17 team jetted out of the country on a training tour ahead of the U17 World Cup.
It was gathered that the players were considered to be “on the borderline,” but they all came out with flying colours at the Abuja National Hospital to give the Golden Eaglets a massive boost ahead of the World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
A squad of 25 players and 10 officials departed Nigeria for Dubai on Monday.
The Golden Eaglets have since resumed training.
Coach Manu Garba said there was no time to waste since the kick-off of the 15th edition of the global cadet competition is fast approaching, adding that, it was important for the players to shake off jet-lag occasioned by their travelling from Calabar to Lagos on Monday before embarking on another seven-hour direct flight from Lagos to Dubai.
All the 25 players trained on Tuesday’s evening at the Higher Colleges of Technology pitch located within the Dubai Academic City under a fine weather condition of 29°C with good visibility throughout the duration of about two hours training that started 4:30pm local time (1:30pm Nigerian time).
“It is good we started today,”Manu said. “This is important because we had our last training session on Saturday morning in Calabar; so it’s good we start conditioning ourselves to our new environment.”
The Eaglets are expected to train henceforth twice daily with variations as occasion demands before their departure to the city of Al-Ain which is about one hour and thirty minutes from Dubai by flight for their preliminary group matches against Mexico and Iraq on October 19 and 22.
The team’s last match against Sweden will be played in Dubai on October 25.
