Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, has revealed that he had to “take away emotions” before selecting his 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Keshi dropped seven players from his final squad and revealed that it was not an easy decision.
“It’s always tough when you have a relationship going on with your players. I had to take away emotions. You have been together with the players for several weeks and some have to go, it’s tough,” supersport.com quoted Keshi as saying to journalists in the team’s training camp in Pennsylvania.
The Nigeria trainer eventually dropped Daniel Akpeyi, Sunday Mba, Nnamdi Oduamadi, Nosa Igiebor, Joel Obi, Obinna Nsofor and Ejike Uzoenyi from his World Cup squad and revealed that he “removed sentiments” before arriving at his decision.
“You can’t bring emotions into this. I removed sentiments from this because I knew I had to be pure in my selection.
“I was realistic and knew I had to do what I had to do. It’s not about me; it’s not even about Nigeria but about Africa because we are flying the flag of the continent in Brazil.
“It’s a shame that I could not take the 30 of them (named in the provisional squad to Brazil) because if I could, I would have done it but some had to go,” he said.
Nigeria begins its World Cup campaign against Iran at Arena da Baixada, Curitiba on June 16.
The Super Eagles will then face Bosnia-Herzegovina at Arena Pantanal, Cuiabá on June 21 before rounding off the preliminary campaign against Argentina at Estádio Beira-Rio, Porto Alegre on June 25. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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