Large crowd of football enthusiasts thronged the Ahmadu Bello Stadium (ABS) to watch Super Eagles first training session in Kaduna on Tuesday.
The Eagles arrived the Northern City – venue for the first leg of the double-header Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the Pharaohs of Egypt, early enough to hold their first training.
Alongside the coaching crew led by Samson Siasia, 19 players participated in the training session while Arsenal youngster, Alex Iwobi, who suffered from food poisoning earlier in the day sat-out the training.
But the Kaduna fans who haven’t seen the Eagles play since their 2-0 victory over Chad over eight months ago, turned up in numbers to watch the team’s first training which began at about 4p.m. local time.
Still expected in camp is Monaco of France defender, Elderson Echiejele, according to News Agency of Nigeria.
The team is lodged at African Continental Hotel off Isa Kaita Road, in Kaduna.
Meanwhile, Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, says the Eagles will not be affected by the weather condition in Kaduna but will use it as an edge over the Egyptians who are not used to playing under such conditions.
“As you just witnessed, the intensity of our training shows clearly that we are all raring to go and that the weather will not be an impediment on Friday,” the Chelsea no 12 told CompleteSports.
“We are going to brave the weather and get the victory that all Nigerians are craving. The Egyptians will feel the weather most so we have no reason to complain.”
Goalkeeper Carl Ikeme also added his voice to the weather condition saying: “We will ignore the weather and give the game our best shot and see how it goes. We should not see the weather as a problem but as a plus because the Egyptians will be worse for it considering where they are coming from.”
Both nations clash on Friday, before meeting in Alexandria on Monday.
