The Head Coach of the U-23 National team, Dream Team VI, Samson Siasia has said at no time did he send Dolphins FC striker Emem Eduok out of the camp of the team due to age discrepancy.
Clarifying his position on the player, Siasia said: “The player came and never trained with the team as he said he was down with injury, and sought for permission to go and get himself properly treated before he returned, a request which I granted as I want the best from my players”
Speaking further, the U-23 tactician said he invited Eduok based on the fact that he knows the player was part of the team that participated at the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup and is aware that he is under the age.
“But when his name was sent to the LMC for clarification like we did with the names of all the players invited from the Premier League, we noticed that his date of birth in his license sent to the LMC showed him to be 23 years of age, so the problem is between his club and the LMC, which I think should be sorted out in the interest of the player”
According to Siasia, he and his technical crew need all the best legs the country can offer, that is why they embarked on an open screening exercise to unearth any good player, so he does not see how they would be shutting out a particular player who has shown to be one of the best this season.
He then disclosed that once the issue is sorted out, the player is welcome back to the team to fight for a place like every other player.
Meanwhile, Coach Siasia has said that there is no going back on his earlier stand on Friday, 5th December as closing date for the screening of all players from the local scene.
He said due to the shortness of time available for the technical crew, they need to concentrate on the foreign based players expected to start arriving the camp of the team from Saturday 6th December, as they will be having their screening from Monday 8th, December at the FIFA Goal Project, Abuja.