Former Super Eagles’ left-back, Elderson Uwa Echiejile has recounted how an injury he copped in 2010 ended his hopes of having a glorious outing at the first FIFA World Cup to hold on African soil, and the same issue of poor physical conditioning also stopped many of his colleagues from shining during the competition in Nelson Mandela’s country, megasportsarena.com reports.
In what becomes the first exposé of what really transpired in the Nigerian team that was taken to South Africa 2010 by veteran Swedish tactician, Lars Largeback, Echiejile said it was not just a case of late preparations with a coach that came in just few months before the competition, but more of a dire situation in which several of the players were not fit enough for the contest.
The former Insurance of Benin City, Stade Rennes, RC Lens and AS Monaco of France, Sporting Braga of Portugal, Sivaspor of Turkey, Standard Liege and Cercle Brugge of Belgium defender said he went to the 2010 Mundial with high hope, but admitted that he struggled with an injury from the first training session the Eagles had in The Rainbow Nation.
The 2013 African Cup of Nations gold medalist, who missed Brazil 2014 World Cup due to injury but made Nigeria’s squad to the next edition two years later in Russia, where he did not get to feature in any of the team’s three matches, recalled that it should have been a better case had he been fit enough to play when he got the chance at South Africa 2010.
That chance came in place of then regular starter, Taye Ismaila Taiwo, during Nigeria’s second group match against Greece, when the first choice left-back suffered an injury in the opening game against Argentina, only for Echiejile to also cop a knock and he played half fit in the next game versus South Korea in place of Joseph Yobo, who bowed out at half-time.
Echiejile told Super Eagles Media: “Injury didn’t allow me to really enjoy the tournament, but that is football. You just have to accept it and move on which I did. From one injury to another injury, but at the end of the day we were able to have a fair tournament.
“It’s not easy in the World Cup to play three games but we had a fair tournament. For we, the young players, it was a good eye opener for us to get to see the world stage of football and it was something great, this is really the big stage.”
