Sports
Ivory Coast Hopeful Over Drogba’s Injury
Ivory Coast are hopeful that captain Didier Drogba will play a part at the World Cup after his recovery from a broken arm was described as very encouraging.
Drogba, 32, suffered the injury in his side’s 2-0 win against Japan last weekend.
After undergoing successful surgery, the striker has now linked up again with his team-mates.
A timeframe for the striker’s return remains sketchy, however, with the Elephants set to open their World Cup campaign against Portugal on 15 June.
Drogba is the current African Player of the Year and scored 37 goals in all competitions for Chelsea last season as the London club won the Premier League and FA Cup Double.
He is seen as critical to Ivory Coast’s hopes of progressing out of group G, which also includes Brazil and North Korea along with Portugal, to reach the knockout stages.
“His recovery has been very encouraging,” said Ivory Coast Federation spokesman Roger Kouassi. “It is suggested that, at this point, all signs are good and there are many hopes.”
The Ivory Coast Federation (FIF) had said on Saturday, when the player underwent surgery, that they and the surgeons who performed the procedure “are confident regarding his speedy recovery”.
Speaking prior to Drogba’s surgery at the Lindenhof hospital in Berne, coach Sven-Goran Eriksson told Tide sports source he believed there was still a chance that Drogba could feature in South Africa.
After their opening match against Portugal, Eriksson’s side face Brazil on 20 June and North Korea on 25 June in a group many observers consider the tournament’s most competitive.
Drogba suffered the injury in Sion, Switzerland, in a collision with Japan defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka – three minutes after the Chelsea forward had opened the scoring with a 13th-minute deflected free-kick.
The Elephants, for whom Drogba has scored 44 goals in 69 appearances, went on to clinch victory with Manchester City defender Kolo Toure netting their second goal.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.