English club Chelsea have
dropped their Nigeria international Victor Moses from the squad to face Sparta
Prague in their Europa League tie on Thursday. The Nigeria international had
been quickly recalled for the trip to the Czech Republic which forced him to
travel back to England from South Africa instead of heading to Abuja with his
teammates.
But Chelsea manager Rafael
Benitez has carefully avoided making the same mistake as Celtic manager, Neil
Lennon, who played Efe Ambrose against Juventus two days after the Africa Cup
of Nations final match against Burkina Faso in South Africa. Ambrose, who only
arrived in Glasgow on match day, turned out a huge deficit to Celtic despite
his sterling performance for Nigeria in South Africa. Lennon would admit on
Wednesday that he took “a gamble” by fielding Ambrose.
Even though Mikel Obi and
Moses were initially in the game plan, Chelsea later exempted Mikel but finally
left out Moses who only arrived in London on Tuesday for the Wednesday flight
to Prague.
Meanwhile, in the United
States of America, Nigeria international Bright Dike has successfully undergone
surgery on an injured knee while expressing his desire to return to the team
soon for the Brazil 2014 qualifying campaign.
The Portlands Timber striker
told MTNFootball.com that he suffered the injury while playing a pre-season
match against Seattle Sounders.
He said, “I injured my knee during a test game
for my team against Seattle Sounders. It all happened when their goalkeeper and
a player fell on my leg. I thank God the surgery was successful and I am
looking forward to a quick recovery.”
On his international career,
Dike, who became a big hit among Nigeria fans when he scored a superb goal in a
friendly against Catalonia as part of the build-up to the 2013 AFCON, said he
hopes to be involved in the World Cup qualifiers and Confederations Cup.
“I hope to be back with the
Super Eagles for the World Cup qualifiers and the Confederations Cup, but I
don’t know for now when because it will depend on my recovery,” Dike said.
Dike used the opportunity to
congratulate the Super Eagles for their victory in South Africa and said he
would have been surprised if Emmanuel Emenike had not emerged as the top scorer
of the tournament.
“I congratulate Nigeria for
winning the Nations Cup. I always knew Emenike would do well and score goals. I
would have been surprised if he didn’t end up as top scorer. He is a wonderful
goal getter,” Dike said as he hailed his cousin Emenike.
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