The League Management Company(LMC) has postponed the rescheduled NPFL Match Day 35 tie between El Kanemi Warriors and Heartland to Saturday to enable the Naze Millionires find replacement for their eight injured players ahead of the tie slated for Maiduguri.
Heartland had yesterday written to the LMC asking for the shift in date of the tie to a later date after medical report ruled six of the team’s first players out of the tie because they were badly injured when the Owerri side had a motor accident on Wednesday at the Maiduguri airport on their way to the state capital’s metropolis.
The report given by chief medical director, Maiduguri Specialist Hospital followed an analysis of the x-ray report on five of the players as well as physical examination yesterday morning on the sixth player, Ebele Obi, whose case appeared to be worse than others.
The five players declared unfit for the tie are Chinedu Efugh, Macmarcel Obioha, Kingsley Ajaero, Oussou Anthony and Chidiebere Ajoku.
The Director of Media for Heartland, Cajetan Nkwopara, told SportingLife that at the pre-match meeting yesterday afternoon, they prostested the failure of the match commissioner, Aminu Jaafar from Kano State to take cognizance of the health condition of the players and ordering that the match should still go ahead at all costs when neither the x-ray report, doctor’s report nor the players who went for examination at the hospital were available.
Nkwopara said that the match commissioner also refused to guarantee the safety of the Heartland’s players lives if the match should go ahead and it was this that made them refuse to sign the pre-match form.
He added that they were grateful to the LMC for agreeing to postpone the tie to Saturday but that the club would soon make their position known when the management headed by Chairman, Good faith Chibuzor Etuemena has deliberated on it.