“He’s had a testing week” – Crawley Town boss to slowly integrate Tanimu into matchday squad following Libya ordeal

Crawley Town head coach, Rob Elliot, has revealed his plans to slowly integrate Super Eagles defender, Benjamin Tanimu, into his matchday squad, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 22-year-old Nigerian centre-back made his debut for the National team in March, and has been subsequently called up to represent the three-time AFCON winners during every International break since then.

Despite not playing any minute against Libya at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Tanimu was a part of the Nigeria team that were delayed at the Libyan airport for over 13 hours.

He's now safely returned to his club side, but the manager is unsure the former Bendel Insurance man will be ready to play against Reading on Sunday.

“It might be a bit too early to tell. I’ll speak to Ricky [McFarlane] who is our head of performance here and who is fantastic. There’s a lot to monitor because of the football and the unique circumstances of the last couple of weeks.

He trained today which is good, gets him on the grass. Obviously you are not a Nigerian international without having talent and ability. But we need to make sure we do the right thing by Benjamin. He’s had a testing week or so and he’s had an indifferent first few weeks since he has come in.

We want to make sure we do the right thing by him and when he goes in he is ready and we are not going to put him at any risk. He seems like a really good professional, a really good athlete. We’ve seen from games he has played in he has ability and hopefully he can help us. We just have to make sure we get it right when we do include him,” the Irish manager said in quotes revealed by Sussex Express.

Crawley Town are without a win in their last ten games, drawing one and losing nine. Tanimu is yet to make an appearance for his new side.