KESHI COMMENT ON YAKUBU RETURN

Keshi opens door for Yakubu return Super Eagles' head coach, Stephen Keshi says he is ready to hand Yakubu Aiyegbeni a recall to the Nigerian men's team. Aiyegbeni, 28, scored twice in Blackburn Rovers' 3-3 draw at Wigan Athletic and his performance has not gone unnoticed by the Nigerian manager. It was Aiyegbeni's fifth goal of the Barclays English Premier League campaign in seven appearances. Keshi believes that the addition of Aiyegbeni to the Nigerian squad will give the younger players a chance to learn from the former Everton man. "Yakubu has always shown that he's a fantastic striker and any coach will be happy to have such a player of his quality in his side. I have followed his performances in recent times and he still has a lot to give to the national team. "Besides, I must say that with the kind of experience Yakubu has got playing in Israel and at different divisions in England one cannot turn a blind eye to that except we want to be sentimental," Keshi told SuperSport.com. On the 2010 World Cup miss by Aiyegbeni against South Korea, Keshi made it clear that "players do have their bad days on the pitch. "I must say every player do have their bad days on the pitch. That day was one of his own bad days. As a player I can recall countless times when I had my bad days but that doesn't mean you're a bad player or that you don't want to win. "As much as we are rebuilding we can't throw away the fact that we want to invite players to the team based on performance. If Yakubu or any other player deserves to be called up to the team, definitely I will call them up," the former Togo manager said. Aiyegbeni's brace against Wigan last Saturday took his total number of goals since arriving England in 2003 to over 100. The Blackburn Rovers' forward last appeared for Nigeria at the Fifa 2010 World Cup in South Africa.