The leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation has agreed that all 25 players who have been in camp in the last week for the duel against Congo this weekend and South Africa next Wednesday can make the trip to Congo.
The decision was at the instance of Super Eagles boss, Stephen Keshi, who made a strong case based on the sparkling form of the players in camp.
An obviously happy Keshi, who spoke through his assistant, Dan ‘the Bull’ Amokachi, and Team Administrator, Dayo Enebi Achor, announced that the team will be led by NFF President, Amaju Pinnick.
It will also have such eminent personalities as the Senate Committee Chairman on Sports, Senator Ibrahim Gumba, and a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Sports, Hon. Mudashiru Oyetunde, on board the flight to Congo.
The chartered Discovery Airliner is expected to take approximately three hours to get to Congo Brazzaville, with departure time set for midnight Nigerian time.
A couple of Nigerian sports journalists from the print and electronic media are also on the trip to Congo.
From the team angle, it was another rigorous session by Keshi on Thursday morning as the team finalised preparation for the trip to Congo.
He juggled players between the Possibles and the Probables, that practically made it impossible for anyone to guess his start list for the game against the hard tacking Congolese.
Thursday session was closed to the media, even as some still sneaked into the main bowl of the National Stadium arena in Abuja to pick the last minute brains of the technical crew.
Keshi simply said at the end of the training session that the team has worked hard enough and the result will show on Saturday.
“Tell Nigerians to just pray for the team and have the belief that we can deliver,” he declared.