Super Eagles coach, Gernot Rohr has finally admitted uncertainty over the future of Tianjin Teda of China star, John Mikel Obi with the Nigerian national team, footballlive.ng reports.
Although Rohr had all along maintained that he and Mikel are in regular contact over the midfielder’s decision to regain full fitness before returning to international duty, the gaffer is now sounding less certain.
Such it is that Rohr stopped short of affirming whether the Eagles’ skipper will be available for the team’s first two matches of 2019, as the Franco-German gaffer failed to give any exact date for the star’s return.
Instead of confirming that Mikel will be invited for the last Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Seychelles in Asaba on March 22nd and the international friendly against Egypt four days later, Rohr declared in a media chat that he does not know the Teda star’s schedule.
With Mikel also failing to fix any particular date on his much-expected return to the Eagles, Rohr has now opted to play safe on his comments about the former Chelsea star, who was riddled with several fitness issues last season in the Chinese Super League.
Unlike before, when Rohr would boldly declare that he is aware of his skipper’s plans and doused talk about the icon heading for retirement, the gaffer simply stated this time: “We don’t know yet when or if Obi Mikel wants to join the Eagles.”
