Former Netherlands youth international William Troost-Ekong has hinted why he found game time hard to come by during Sunday Oliseh's spell as manager of the Super Eagles.

The Bursaspor central defender made only two appearances for the national team, against Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo, under the stewardship of Oliseh before he was frozen out of the squad.

''The Olympics was like a restart for my international career. I was part of the Super Eagles until Sunday Oliseh took me out because he said Oyibo boys are too soft,'' Troost-Ekong said to aclsports.com.

''I hope he’s watching his TV now and see us going to the World Cup.No ill feelings, I saw him at the Olympics last year and we spoke briefly. 

''He didn’t believe in me then but I think Nigerians can see now what I can do.''

Nigeria have kept seven clean sheets in fifteen matches William Troost-Ekong featured for the national team, and he partnered German-born Leon Balogun in central defense in five of those games, against Chad, Mali, Tanzania, Cameroon and Zambia.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel