The senior national team of Nigeria started training ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers game against Sierra Leone in Monrovia on Saturday.
Yesterday at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena a total of 19 players took part in the session with the duo of Divine Nwachukwu and Ebube Duru giving time off to recover after their participation in the NPFL playoff.
In view of the fact that the game will be played on a synthetic surface in Monrovia, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) picked the stadium at Onikan as training ground for the team to give them a feel of what it feels like to play on a surface like that.
That idea as smart as it is has come with a consequence for the players who are struggling to cope especially on the first day of training. As many as three of them lament the quality of the synthetic surface saying it is not at the same level with other pitches of the same made.
One of the players said the pitch is uneven in some spaces making players to struggle to keep their feet. He also said the quality of the material used is probably not at the level of the one they will face in Monrovia.
Training will continue today with the players hopefully used to the surface and more of the invited players notably top striker Victor Osimhen will take part in today’s session, which will be more tactical than that of yesterday.
Damian Waziri
