The international career of Elderson Echiejile is not in any way threatened by his move to second division Belgium side Cercle Brugge, Owngoalnigeria.com can exclusively reveal.
Echiejile made a shock move to the promotion chasing Belgium side in January from Turki
sh side Sivasspor. A move which threw his World Cup participation with Nigeria in doubts.
However a top source to coach of the senior national team of Nigeria Gernot Rohr revealed the coach still has the 29 year old left back in his plans for the World Cup in Russia later this year.
” No way is he out of the plans of Gernot Rohr. He is very much a part of Rohr’s plans for the World Cup. You can’t throw away the fact that he is one of our most experienced defender presently”, he told Owngoalnigeria.com.
” All he need to do is to get more games under his belt and for sure he will be on the plane to Russia. He has done enough to win the trust of Rohr, he need regular game time to stay fit and that will be okay”, he concluded.
The former Monaco defender made his debut for his new team in their 1-1 draw against St. Union Gilloise , and he was rated as one of the top performers in the game.
Widely travelled and experienced he still being viewed by many as the weak spot in the Nigerian defence but coach Rohr rates him highly, although the presence of Ola Aina and Brian Idowu, two players who only recently pledged their allegiance to Nigeria could affect his spot in the team.
Osas Mahawi
