Super Eagles star vindicates Peseiro, confirms he played AFCON 2023 final ‘on one leg’

Nigerian full-back Ola Aina has revealed that he played the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations nursing an injury that impacted his game in the loss to hosts Ivory Coast.

The Nottingham Forest defender also absolved ex-Super Eagles manager Jose Peseiro, claiming that the Portuguese manager was not the reason Nigeria lost the AFCON final.

The 27-year-old full-back had an uncharacteristically bad performance in the 2023 AFCON final against Ivory Coast, as Brighton winger Simon Adingra gave her the runaround in the Super Eagles’ 2-1 loss.

Aina was unable to cope with Adingra’s pace and trickery, as the 22-year-old winger completed five dribbles on the night and set up Franck Kessie’s 81st-minute winner after beating the full-back.

In a recent chat with fellow Super Eagles star Alex Iwobi, Aina praised Adingra saying, “Let me set this record straight. Give it to my man who done [sic] his thing with the assist, [Simon] Adingra. He’s a baller.” but he also revealed that his own subpar performance was due to an injury, adding, [But] Man was playing on one leg. You think I’m missing AFCON final?”

Aina also noted that the decision to play him despite his injury was not Peseiro’s fault, as he insisted to the coach that he was fit enough to play.

He told Iwobi, “I even see people cursing the coach. It wasn’t the coach’s fault. He asked me ‘do you think you can play?’ Of course I told him I can play.”

The former Chelsea and Torino defender was adamant he made the right decision, saying, “It’s the AFCON final I don’t know if I’m going to make it there again. I need to play. So I tried to manage, and I didn’t manage.”

The 2-1 loss to Ivory Coast was the closest that Nigeria have come to winning the AFCON since 2013 and was the first time that the Super Eagles lost the final of the competition since being beaten by Cameroon on home soil in 2000.