By SINL Reporter
A former Super Eagles goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama has said he was not fit for the 2018 World cup in Russia.
According to Enyeama, he did not put himself into consideration for the tournament.
There were reports prior to the trip to Russia that coach Gernot Rohr was persuading the most capped Eagles player to return to the team, after regular first choice, Carl Ikeme, was diagnosed with acute leukaemia in 2017.
Recall, Enyeama had left the Eagles unceremoniously after his rift with ex-Eagles coach Sunday Oliseh.
In an Instagram Live chat with former Eagles teammate, Ogenyi Onazi, the shot-stopper, according to the PUNCH said even though he was not invited by Rohr, he would not have given the national team a consideration if he was invited because he was not in the best shape.
“That World Cup, there were a lot of issues… Sincerely speaking, I wasn’t fit for it and I was not invited anyway.
“First, I wasn’t invited, secondly I wasn’t even considering to push for anything because I wasn’t fit. When you are not fit and you are not invited, you can quietly shut your mouth. Nobody contacted me and we were not in talking terms, but the truth be told, I wasn’t fit.
“You know Nigeria is to big for you to go and play below par, if you are not fit and decide to play because of greed, you will disgrace yourself,” Enyeama said.
The ex-Lille keeper also ruled out a return to the national team in future.
“The truth be told, there are people (goalkeepers) there at the moment, you know how it is – hierarchy – there is Akpeyi that is doing very well in South Africa, there is (Ikechukwue) Ezenwa, there is (Francis) Uzoho that is coming back from injury and there are a whole lot of keepers in the team.
“You just have to understand and respect the fact that there are people right now in front of you, so, you just have to wait for your time, that’s even if you still have that time again. Even if there is injury trouble, except I play week-in-week-out; except that, why would you invite a goalkeeper who doesn’t play regularly when you have a lot in the league you can call upon.
“The truth is that there was no communication from anybody before the World Cup,” he added.
Meanwhile, Onazi has urged Enyeama to join him in Turkey, promising the ex-Eagles captain he would help him secure a deal with his club Denizlispor.
