Category: Sports

Leicester Coach Disagrees With Wilfred Ndidi Over Injury Status

Leicester City manager, Enzo Maresca has insisted that Nigerian midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi is not expected to return to competitive football anytime soon.

This assertion is contrary to the claims of Wilfred Ndidi who said that he should return to competitive football within the next two weeks.

Recall that Ndidi was one of the players Super Eagles head coach, Jose Peseiro planned to take to the 2023 AFCON in Ivory Coast. The defensive midfielder was included in Super Eagles’ 25-man list but the player had to withdraw from the squad due to an injury.

Ndidi had to undergo surgery to treat the injury and has been out of football since December last year.

In a recent interview with Sky Sports, the 27-year-old midfielder said: “The injury’s alright, I’m getting there. It’s two weeks post-surgery.

“Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I’ll be back.”

When he was asked to clarify what the two weeks signify, the Nigerian midfielder said, “A couple of weeks to play.”

Ahead of Leicester City’s FA Cup fourth-round game against Birmingham which ended in an emphatic 3-0 win for coach Maresca earlier today, the manager argued that Ndidi was wrong with his projection.

The 43-year-old Italian tactician stressed that the Nigeria international will stay out of football for more than the weeks the footballer projected.

“He didn’t understand ‘a couple of weeks’, that it means two weeks. It’s not weeks”, the coach said.

“It’s as we said at the beginning, it’s three months, and nothing has changed. But he didn’t understand that couple means two, so this is why he said it.”

Note that the contract between Leicester City and Wilfred Ndidi will expire on June 30, 2024, and there is no sign of a contract extension talks at the time of writing.

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Lennox Lewis Can’t Make Sense Out Of Anthony Joshua Vs Ngannou Bout

The former unified heavyweight champion, Lennox Lewis, has criticized Nigerian-born British boxer Anthony Joshua for choosing to fight Francis Ngannou in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on March 8.

Lennox Lewis, a British legend who gained fame for his achievements in boxing around twenty-five years ago, claimed that Anthony is losing credibility by choosing Ngannou as his opponent.

Lewis argued that Joshua is losing his reputation and that his opponents should be of a higher standard despite the British boxer recording three straight wins in 2023.

He also argued that even if Joshua beat the Cameroonian crossover boxer in March, that wouldn’t give Joshua a shot at the world title.

“If AJ beats Ngannou, which he should, does that elevate him to a shot at undisputed? Beating Wallin and Ngannou?” Lennox Lewis wrote on Twitter. “There’s a much better case for the winner of Parker vs. Zhang and if AJ gets through Ngannou, and Usyk wins undisputed, is the appetite for Usyk vs. Joshua 3 out there?”

He continued, “If Fury becomes undisputed, the man says he’s vacating all belts but the WBC and The Ring so Fury in effect becomes last undisputed [champion] until someone else can ‘Thanos’ them back together. I still want to see AJ fight Fury and Wilder … those are big fights. But like I told Mike Tyson, if you keep fighting guys like Lou Savarese, you will NEVER be ready for me.”

Just like most boxing critics, the British boxing icon believes that Joshua picked Ngannou because the Cameroonian-American boxer is new in boxing.

Note that Ngannou has only engaged in professional boxing once. He almost defeated British heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury but lost to the WBC champion on points after dropping the Englishman once.

After that fight, he felt confident enough for Joshua to join him in the ring. The two boxers are anticipated to win a substantial amount at the Riyadh event on March 8.

Ngannou is a martial arts expert who advanced through the MMA cage category and into the UFC heavyweight class.

He won the UFC title after defeating Stipe Miocic in 2021. After leaving the UFC where he suffered only three losses, he intends to build a new profile in heavyweight boxing.

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