Ndidi blasts back at claims he is feigning injury over position change in Super Eagles

Super Eagles midfielder Wilfred Ndidi says reports that he feigned injury because he did not want to play as a centre back for Nigeria in next Tuesday’s international friendly against Algeria is untrue.

A USA-based Nigerian journalist, Sulaimon Folarin had tweeted that Ndidi was upset because Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro wants to play him as a centre back against Algeria.

‘Sources on Ndidi injury: Super Eagles manager Jose Peseiro wants to play Wilfred Ndidi at centerback against #Algeria. Ndidi is upset about this. He wants to play in the midfield. Next thing, Ndidi has an undisclosed injury, out of the squad and returns to #England,’ Folarin had twitted.

Ndidi took aim at what was being said about his injury on social media, responding to one journalist by asking how sure they were about their reporting.

‘How sure are you? Did you ask questions? Did you check your facts, No! you just decided to tweet… bravo you did yourself proud sir,’ Ndidi fired back via his twitter handle.

Meanwhile, Ndidi has been ruled out of Nigeria’s friendly game against Algeria due to a hamstring injury and has returned to Leicester City.

The City star was expected to feature in the Super Eagles’ friendly on September 27. He had previously missed a 2022 World Cup qualifier against Ghana also due to injury.

The Nigeria Football Federation confirmed the blow on social media on Tuesday morning. It read: “Midfielder Wilfred Ndidi is injured and out of the game against Nigeria. He has left the team’s camp and returned to England. Get well soon Wilfred.”

Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro has since addressed the situation with Ndidi re-posting the video on his Twitter page.

“[Wilfred] Ndidi when he came, the fitness coach from Leicester sent our fitness coach a message that he complained in the last match,” Peseiro said.

“He came, he trained without intensity, a small training [session] but with conditioning. He feels something in his hamstring, and I think it’s best not to use [him].

“It’s not dangerous but I’m not going to use one player in a friendly match if he can get more injured. He [returned] to Leicester today, for recovery.”