PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: John Obi Mikel – Nigerian looking to bounce back from defeat

by Graeme Jackson

Monday Apr 02, 2018. 10:00

Nigeria captain John Obi Mikel has had a frustrating time of late and will hope that this week brings him better fortune in his career.

The Super Eagles midfielder missed out on his national team’s matches against Poland and Serbia in the recent international window due to a visa issue, preventing him from travelling outside of China on short notice.

The 30-year-old at least was able to return to playing action this past weekend as he started for his Chinese Super League club, Tianjin Teda, in a 2-1 away loss to Jiangsu Suning.

Mikel played the full 90 minutes but was unable to prevent his side falling to a second defeat from their first four 2018 CSL matches, leaving them in ninth place on the log.

The Nigerian and Tianjin will be back in action on Friday, April 6, when they play away to Beijing Guoan.