Keshi slams Uche's attitude

Nigeria head coach Stephen Keshi has criticised Ikechukwu Uche's attitude and revealed the striker is not in his immediate plans for the World Cup later this year.

Nigeria head coach Stephen Keshi has criticised Ikechukwu Uche's attitude and revealed the striker is not in his immediate plans for the World Cup later this year.

Uche last played for the Super Eagles in their 2013 Africa Cup of Nations final win over Burkina Faso and has found himself out of favour with Keshi, who believes the striker's approach has a negative impact on the rest of his squad.

And, despite being in fine form for his club Villarreal, Keshi revealed that he may leave Uche out of his World Cup squad due to his apparent disobedience on the pitch.

"Ikechukwu Uche is not a player I have not seen play. Ike Uche's problem is not knowing how to play football," Keshi told Nigeria Info FM.

"His problem is that he wants to dictate how we play in Super Eagles. He wants to tell us the system we're playing is not good.

"Uche has a very bad habit, that if you put him in the game he is not playing to instructions and he did that in the final of (2013) AFCON against Burkina Faso, he almost cost us that match.

"Again, he did that against Zambia, in the second match when (Efe) Ambrose was given a red card. What we told him to do, he was doing the opposite.

"And if you don't respect your team mates and you don't respect the team, then there is no point. I know he cannot do that in his club, then why do it in the national team?

"I don't think I need a player like that in the team,"

Uche has scored 12 goals in 22 La Liga games for the Yellow Submarine this campaign, and his goals could be crucial to the Spanish club if they are to secure their place in next season's Champions League.