Following the release of the list of players invited for the forthcoming 2017 AFCON qualifier against Tanzania, Coach Sunday Oliseh has explained his reason for omitting Mikel Obi's name.
Head Coach of the Super Eagles, Sunday Oliseh, on Thursday, August 20, explained why he left out Chelsea of England midfielder, John Mikel Obi from his list of players invited for the forthcoming 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Tanzania.
The coach, who revealed this at a media parley in Abuja said he made several phone calls including text messages to Obi’s number but he never responded to any.
Reluctantly speaking about the issue of Obi, Oliseh revealed that he has no bias against anybody adding that under him, the national team will not favour or malign any Nigerian player.
“Well this issue is an enigma and we have been trying to understand it but I am in the dark personally, and with my assistants we spent time about 11 days in and around Europe talking to players, watching games. We contacted each of the players, call them up, call the clubs and eventually met with the players.
“I went to England on a Thursday and Chelsea was just coming back, we had fixed our visit to coincide with the end of their tour before they played Arsenal. I contacted Obi Mikel, called him on phone four times, the phone kept on ringing nobody picked it up, I sent him an SMS and got no response. But I called Victor Moses the phone rang three times and he picked it up and I spoke with him, told him to concentrate on his game.
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