An official of Nigeria’s under-17 national team, Golden Eaglets has hinted that the squad failed to win the recent West African Football Union (WAFU) Zone-B competition in Lome, Togo because they were distracted by positive coronavirus results in the camp, megasportsarena.com reports.
Though the official did not elaborate on the said infestation of the highly contagious respiratory ailment in the Eaglets’ camp, he inferred that the struggles with health issues and concern raised about a widespread outbreak stopped the lads from concentrating fully on retaining the title.
The squad returned to Nigeria on Tuesday, after losing to Cote d’Ivoire in the final, but they both qualified for Morocco 2021, which will hold in July, with the Ivorians winning Monday’s ultimate game 3-2 to topple the defending champions, who they had also beaten 1-0 in the group rounds.
However, a report by SCORENigeria has noted that that COVID-19 slowed the Eaglets down and almost put paid to their hope of qualifying for this year’s Africa U17 Cup of Nations in Morocco after three players and three officials tested positive during the qualifying tournament in Togo.
The official told SCORENigeria: “We give God the glory that despite the positive results that hit the squad, we still qualified for the U17 AFCON. It was tough, but we remained focused and resolute.”
