CHELSEA manager, Antonio Conte, says he is still in the dark over John Mikel Obi’s participation at the men’s football event of the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Mikel is part of the 18-man team registered for the Dream Team 6 campaign in Rio and one of the two players on overage quota of Nigeria; the other being goalkeeper Daniel Akpeyi.
“Mikel going to Rio? That’s great but puzzling,” Conte reacted to Nigeria’s decision on Thursday night after a pre-season game against Austrian club Atus Ferlach on Thursday.
“Mikel has been here a long time ago, I am new but we are making moves in a professional sense. I am a national team and club person, where there is a clash of roster, we have to take professional decision, we shall make references,’’ Conte said.
Mikel Obi’s commitment to Chelsea stopped the player from representing Nigeria at the 2008 Olympics in Athens where the country’s Dream Team ended as runners’-up to Argentina.