Pinnick Reveals How NFF, Rohr Twisted Leicester City's Arm To Play Iheanacho

Amaju Pinnick has revealed that the Nigeria Football Federation and manager Gernot Rohr have a hand in Kelechi Iheaancho's recent change of fortune at Leicester City.

It would be recalled that the Foxes number eight saw his first-team opportunities limited in the Premier League in the first half of the season, failing to play a single game November 24, 2017 to January 20, 2018 and missing 12 games in total.

Iheanacho is now back in favour at the King Power Stadium outfit, and has figured in their last five Premier League matches, mostly as an impact substitute.

''Everybody that is selected eventually will have 100 percent merit. We are not going to say you are not playing. If you look at what is going on now, you will see that some of our boys are playing,'' Pinnick told network8tv.com.

''Iheanahco is playing now. There are lot of things that we did that people do not understand, talking to their coaches, talking to their backroom staff, making them understand the reason.

''If you don't play them we move them or we don't invite them. There are lot of things that we do that most Federations don't do.''

It is believed that Iheanacho's Leicester City teammate Ahmed Musa had to be shipped out on loan to Russian Premier League team CSKA Moscow in January after the Nigerian Federation did not get assurances from manager Claude Puel that the striker will be utilized.

Igho Kingsley