By: Gracious Akujobi Thursday, was the birthday of Super Eagles striker, Brown Ideye as he turned 25 and as early as 8am, some of his relatives have come into camp with cakes for him to mark the day, but the star striker was not in the mood for much celebration as the game against Ethiopia beckons.
He told team’s Media Officer, Ben Alaiya, that the celebration will be sweeter if the Nigerian side triumphs by any margin in Ethiopia come Sunday, promising that if given a shirt he will justify it by scoring. Ideye’s teammates however surprised the Dynamo of Ukraine striker during lunch when they sang the happy birthday song for him and bathed him with water, wishing him many happy returns. It was a surprise the striker least expected as Head Coach Stephen Keshi and other officials watched the hilarious scene.
The striker was to later have a slight knock during the evening training session and have to pull out to avoid aggravating it. He said after that the knock was nothing to be afraid of as he got only muscle contraption and not a tear. “I’m okay and well” he said smiling.
The team is expected to depart for Ethiopia by Friday night through the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja via a chartered flight.
At Thursday evening training, all departments of the game seemed to have been settled as the probables tackled the possibles in a match that kept the sizeable crowd at the Abuja stadium cheering all the way. From the look of things, Keshi is likely to adopt a cautious but offensive approach to the game on Sunday.
