The recent statement made by the coach of Wolverhampton Wanderers Nuno Espírito Santo on Ola Aina playing in the Africa Cup of Nations final match against Ivory Coast with an injury has opened the door for more revelation, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Aina played the entire duration of the Super Eagles 1-2 loss to the host and upon his return to his club his coach revealed that he played in the game with an injury he picked up in the semi final, and it is why he hasn’t played since returning from the tournament.
“Ola got injured in the semi-final and played the final with an injury, he tried but didn’t really play in the final,” said Espirito Santo ahead of their game against Sheffield United.
Also coach of Atalanta Gian Piero Gasperini said Ademola Lookman who started in the final played with a knock on his ankle hence the reason why he only started playing this weekend since returning from the tournament, the same goes for William Troost-Ekong who hasn’t played for PAOK, since he returned from the tournament where he was voted the most valuable player (MVP).
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Already Zaidu Sanusi has been ruled out for the rest of the season and possibly for a while with a knee injury, which is coach said was down to playing to many games without sufficient room for recovery considering that he only returned to fitness three weeks before the start of the tournament. He also started in the final for Nigeria after missing the semi final with a knock.
The cases mentioned above made us to inquire from a player of the team on what really happened in the camp before the loss to the host. ” We played that game with five unfit players because the coach has faith in just a small group of players”, he revealed.
” I can tell you that aside the four players you mentioned, Victor Osimhen wasn’t fully fit for that game. He had the stomach issue that didn’t make him train fully. Ekong played through the pain barrier for all the knock out games. Zaidu wasn’t fully fit just like Lookman and Aina.
” Maybe a lot of people think not starting Moses Simon was an error but the biggest one was playing too many players with fitness concerns because the coach kept his faith in just 15 players. I really think we failed in that aspect more”, he concluded.
Mohammed Mowiz Suleiman
