Sunday Oliseh: NFF chiefs are becoming worried over their coach’s health

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is increasingly worried over the state of health of Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh. The federation has begun the process of hiring a foreign technical adviser to replace him, New Telegraph has learnt. Oliseh’s recent health challenges stopped him from taking charge of Nigeria’s CHAN qualifiers against Burkina Faso and even looked noticeably emaciated when he led the Eagles to victory over Swaziland in 2018 World Cup qualifiers last month.
The coach travelled back to his base in Belgium since after the match in Port Harcourt reportedly to continue his treatment and is yet to re-join the team preparing for CHAN tournament because of his condition. Although he is said to have been in constant touch with his team via Skype, his assistants, Jean Luscuito and Salisu Yusuf, have been in charge of the homesbased players and there are indications that the duo would lead the team to the tournament despite the coach insisting he would be fit before the start of the competition. However, our investigation has revealed that the NFF chiefs are becoming worried over their coach’s health.

Although our correspondent was unable to discover the nature of his illness, a source disclosed that it was a serious ailment. The source who is a top staff of the federation confirmed that the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, had set up a three-man committee which he heads to discuss with a number of foreign coaches with a view to hiring one for the Eagles.

“The NFF President is a good friend of Oliseh’s, he has utmost trust in him but the pressure on Pinnick has continued to mount because of the coach’s health,” the source said. “The NFF has resolved to stay with the coach during his trying period and I don’t think we are ready to sack him. But another coach would be brought in as the Technical Adviser.

“That position is still vacant, even though Oliseh did not agree when he was signing his contract that another man would be employed to supervise him, Pinnick has told Oliseh his job was still secured but due to his ill-health a ‘sound’ expatriate will be employed to shoulder the pressure.

“You can recall that the NFF president said sometimes ago that the federation would employ a foreign assistant to help Oliseh but what they actually wanted is a seasoned coach to take over. Let me confirm that this has nothing to do with the results the team has recorded so far but strictly about the coach’s health.”