President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has revealed how the cancellation of the Super Eagles’ friendly against Burkina Faso, has disrupted coach Gernot Rohr’s plans.
Pinnick says Rohr wanted to face very physical African teams, as part of preparations for Nigeria’s 2018 World Cup qualifying double-header against African champions Cameroon, later this year.
The Eagles were held 1-1 by Senegal on Thursday and the German was looking forward to the Burkina Faso match, to test some of the new faces in squad.
However, the game has been called off, after some Burkina Faso players failed to obtain British visas. “The Technical Adviser (Gernot Rohr) wanted to play very physical African teams, as part of the preparations for the World Cup qualifying matches against Cameroon, and we duly fulfilled that with the arrangements we made for Senegal and Burkina Faso.
“Unfortunately, some of the Burkinabe players could not secure entry visas into the UK. It is nobody’s fault. Our joy is that we were able to play Senegal and got a fair result with a depleted squad, and also the objectives of team bonding, team building, team discipline and further imparting the Technical Adviser’s philosophy to the group have been well served.
“The Technical Adviser has also been able to look at a few more options, and our strength-in-depth is looking very good,” Pinnick said.
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