Heracles Almelo of Holland striker, Cyriel Dessers has admitted he would have loved to get his debut in Nigeria’s national team this coming weekend, had coronavirus not put that hope on hold, but he hinted that staying alive in the midst of the ongoing global pandemic is the most important thing for now, megasportsarena.com reports.
While admitting he was disappointed that the chances of him getting his international debut for the Super Eagles against Sierra Leone on the 27th or 31st of this this month, Dessers says he only has to turn his focus on finally getting his chance when the new scheduled are announced by Confederation of African Football (CAF).
He would have probably played in at least one of those two 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which had been fixed for those dates in Asaba and Freetown respectively, ahead of which Dessers said he was happy to get his first ever call-up to the Nigerian team, but he is now concentrating only on staying healthy during the ongoing scourge of coronavirus.
With the Dutch Eredivisie also on break due to the escalating effects of COVID-19, Dessers is self-isolating like all other players across the world, but he is chipping in time for his individual training in Apeldoorn, even as he stressed that all thoughts now must be on how to avoid contracting the deadly respiratory disease, before thinking of the national team debut later on.
The lad with a Belgian father, however, admitted he felt a heavy blow against him mentally and psychologically when he heard that the matches had been called off by CAF, a development he admitted he initially found hard to stomach, but he has now recovered from the shock and will now concentrate on the more important task of beating coronavirus for now.
Dessers told Nederlandse Omroep Stichting: “In the beginning it was mentally tough. I was excited, because that would have been the best moment of my career. But of course there are now much more important things going on for everyone. That debut could wait.”
