Emergent players in the formative cadet national team, Golden Eaglets will this month go for the mandatory Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI) Scan, to determine if they are truly within the age bracket for next year’s FIFA U17 World Cup.
Information on offer from the team’s camp in Abuja indicate that the players and coaches are already apprehensive over what could be the outcome of the tests, as palpable fears are rising over the possibility of some key members of the squad getting the chop.
Eaglets coach, Manu Garba confirmed that all players in the squad will undergo the MRI test this month, and admitted that anyone who fails will have to be dropped.
Last year, failed MRI tests accounted for an exclusion of the entire first team players he had prepared for an U-17 AFCON qualifier against Niger Republic, and Garba is holding palpable worries over facing a repeat occurrence this month.
Heading into that point, though, 60 players who have been training in Abuja, as they prepare for the next U17 AFCON will be hosted by Tanzania next year.
Garba, who won the FIFA U-17 World Cup at UAE 2013 with the like of Kelechi Iheanacho and Taiwo Awoniyi, is hoping to build a strong squad for the qualifiers, which will be on a regional basis – with winners advancing to the tournament finals.
