Keshi to open Eagles camp May 15

Players from the NPFL are expected to start arriving to the national team camp in preparation for the AFCON qualifiers that would commence in June. Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi is expected to open camp for the domestic-league based players in May, ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations’ qualifiers at home to Chad in Abuja in June. Keshi told Goal that he needs to start camping for the home-based players on time with the fixtures for the Afcon qualifiers pitching Nigeria with Egypt, Chad and Tanzania. “We need to start camping next month by the special grace of God because time is not on our side again since the fixtures for the Afcon 2017 qualifiers have been released by CAF,” Keshi told Goal. “We will definitely start off with the
players based here in Nigeria and move on until the required time the overseas clubs can release our players for us.”

A very close source to the team told Goal that Keshi would be expecting the players to hit Abuja camp as from May 17 since the players would be involved in weekend matches for their various clubs in the local league in the country. “The camp is expected to kick off middle of May since we will be playing our first qualifying match at home in Abuja to Chad on June 13. So the players are expected to start arriving camp after their league matches on May 16. So we should expect them to be available on May 17,” the source disclosed. “Keshi has already drawn up his programme for the camping and will submit it before Friday,” the source also told Goal. Friday being a public holiday, it is expected that the coach would drop his programme before the end of work today.