John Obi Mikel to help Nigeria’s amputee team

by Graeme Jackson

Wednesday Oct 24, 2018. 10:00

Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel is set to help Nigeria's amputee team play at the upcoming World Cup.

The BBC reports that Mikel will be “donating money and buying kits” to help the Special Eagles play at the tournament, having missed the previous three editions due to financial constraints.

“We've spoken to a representative of John Mikel Obi who has offered to help the team,” Fred Edoreh, co-ordinator of fund-raising, told BBC Sport.

“His support will come as a big boost, but right now the dilemma is to find the flights to get the squad to Mexico.

“Time is running out on us and with ticket costs increasing by the day towards our opening game against our budget, we are taking the hard decisions of sending the first team as first batch.

“The first batch should have left today but there were not enough seats on the last lap of the journey, from Mexico City to Guadalajara. Our travel agents are working hard to secure space for them by tomorrow.”

The Amputee World Cup in Mexico begins on Saturday. Nigeria, who started crowd-funding for the trip at the beginning of the month, begin their campaign on Sunday against Brazil.

Russia won the competition four years ago after beating Angola 3-1 in the final.