Chelsea boss Frank Lampard says he will not influence which country Tomori and Abraham play for

CHELSEA manager Frank Lampard has said he will not intervene in the ongoing scramble for Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori as England and Nigeria fight to secure their services.

 

Both Abraham and Tomori are eligible to play for Nigeria but they have featured for England youth teams in the past, so will need to switch nationality through Fifa to be eligible to feature for the Super Eagles. Nigeria is playing a friendly game against Brazil in Singapore on October 13 and with Abraham and Tomori both having a established themselves in the Chelsea team this season and being in fine form, there have been calls for them to be invited for the match.

 

However, Super Eagles head coach Gernot Rohr, has disclosed that it would not be possible to have them in camp as switching nationality is a long process. He pointed out that the process takes about a year as happened with the case of Torino and former Chelsea fullback Aina, who eventually made the switch after a lengthy battle.

 

England are keen on both players but Mr Rohr has said he will respect Tomori and Abraham’s wishes, of not opting to represent Nigeria at the moment, if they so decide. Yesterday, Mr Lampard said he would not interfere with the process, adding that the decision to play for either Nigeria or England depends on the players.

 

He added: "On their international futures it is not my place to tell them what to decide, I never would do with a player. There is too much more that is important for them individually for them and their families about where they play their football, so unless they ask me in a footballing sense and they haven’t, I will let then decide.”

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