Musa leaves Unity Cup camp ahead of tomorrow's finals and returns home for personal reasons

VETERAN Super Eagles striker Ahmed Musa has left the team's Unity Cup camp in London ahead of tomorrow's final against Jamaica and returned to Nigeria to attend to personal matters.

In a surprise development, Musa, 32, the oldest player in the squad, left camp yesterday to attend to undisclosed personal matters. He had featured in the first match against Ghana, coming on as a second half substitute in the 2-1 victory over the Black Stars on Wednesday in what was dubbed the jollof derby.

Musa just returned to the Super Eagles for the first time since the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and had been expected to play some role in Saturday's final. After the Nations Cup he stopped playing for his former Turkish club Sivasspor and that ensured that he was not called up to the Super Eagles squad for subsequent World Cup qualifiers.

However, Musa eventually joined Nigeria Premier League club Kano Pillars last October, and he has been a regular for them ever since. He contributed 10 goals and two assists in 23 appearance for the former league champions in the just-concluded season, ensuring that Super Eagles coach Eric Chelle took notice of him.

Meanwhile, Brentford’s Under-21 Player of the Year Benjamin Fredrick, has been spotted training with the Super Eagles. Fredrick, 20, is a graduate of the Simoiben Football Academy set up by pro-footballer Moses Simon and in August 2023, he signed for English Premier League side Brentford on loan with the option to make the deal permanent.

It is not yet clear whether he will just train with the team or he will also be named in the squad that will play against Jamaica on Saturday. Fredrik, who signed a four year deal with Brentford in April 2024, featured for the Nigeria U-20 team that finished third at the 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations held in Egypt in January 2023.