West Bromwich Albion striker Peter Odemwingie has been dropped from the Nigeria squad after walking out on the team in March.
Odemwingie, referred to as Osaze by Nigerian coach Samson Siasia, left the national team camp with an injury ahead of a friendly game against Kenya two months ago. However, he reportedly did so without permission and his failure to apologise has led to Siasia flexing his managerial muscle.
At the time, Odemwingie reportedly claimed that Siasia was questioning his injury claim, after which he used Twitter to say: “Hearing something that Siasia is angry I left. He needs to think a bit or he got issues.”
Now, ahead of June games against Argentina and Ethiopia, Odemwingie – who has netted 15 goals for the Baggies this season – has been dropped, with Newcastle United’s Shola Ameobi instead named by Siasia for the games.
"The other players in the team had threatened to stage a mass protest and back out of other matches if I failed to sanction Osaze for leaving the camp in Abuja without permission," Siasia was quoted as saying by Fifa’s official website.
"I had no option but to do this to instil discipline in the team."
"I didn't want a situation where I or Nigeria would be totally disgraced by the players. Let discipline be maintained. Osaze is not bigger than the team or the whole (of) Nigeria."