Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel has pledged financial assistance to the cash strapped amputee football team, though the face a rare against time to be fit in time for the World cup.
The Nigeria amputee football team were absent in the last three editions World cups due to financial constraint, took to crowd-funding earlier in the month of October, to ensure the make it to the 2018 edition of the World football showpiece.
Both the Nigerian Football Federation President Amaju Pinnick and the Super Eagles players have made significant financial assistance, but former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has now stepped up to offer assistance to the team to ensure their dreams comes to pass.
“We’ve spoken to a representative of John Mikel Obi who has offered to help the team,” coordinator of fund-raising, Fred Edoreh, told BBC Sport.
“His support will come as a big boost, but right now the dilemma is to find the flights to get the squad to Mexico.
“Time is running out on us and with ticket costs increasing by the day towards our opening game against our budget, we are taking the hard decisions of sending the first team as first batch.
“This is to avoid heavier cost and also get the boys to settle down before the game against Brazil on Sunday.
“The first batch (eight players and coach) should have left today (Tuesday) but there were not enough seats on the last lap of the journey, from Mexico City to Guadalajara.
“Our travel agents are working hard to secure space for them by tomorrow (Wednesday). So they are expected to depart Lagos by 12 noon with Ethiopia Airlines.
“This will help us to secure our presence and avoid a global sanction. Hoping with additional funds, the reserve team can depart on Thursday or Friday,” Edoreh said.
BBC Sport further revealed that the former Chelsea and Lyn Oslo midfielder supported the team with both cash and kits.