Despite been pronounced injured by the coach of Chelsea Antonio Conte, captain of the Nigeria senior national team Mikel John Obi is set to play for Nigeria in their first World Cup 2018 qualifiers against Zambia.
Mikel is expected to arrive Nigeria on Monday for the start of training ahead of the October 9 tie in Ndola and, so far he is yet to formally inform the technical crew of the extent of his injury.
Hence the coaches are going ahead with the 29 year old in their match plan for the game which will be the first real test for the newly appointed coach of Nigeria Gernot Rohr.
” Even the game he played against Tanzania, he wasn’t fully fit. He managed his way through the Olympics and his determination to lead Nigeria to qualification for the World Cup in Russia is enough reason for him to play through the pain barrier” a team source told Owngoalnigeria.com.
However there are plans for the midfield maestro to undergo test with the medical team of the Super Eagles upon arrival in camp to enable the team assess the severity of the injury.
His injury according to Conte is the reason why he is yet to play for Chelsea in a competitive fixture under the Italian after his participation at the Rio 2016 Olympics.
He has however within that same period of time played for Nigeria in a dead rubber AFCON 2017 qualifiers against Tanzania.
