Football Espana
·6 April 2022
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Yahoo sportsFootball Espana
·6 April 2022
Huesca have terminated Kelechi Nwakali’s contract.
The Nigerian international had been in dispute with the club after returning late from the African Cup of Nations due to illness.
The Segunda outfit have now taken the step of parting company with him; Kelechi has responded with a statement on Instagram.
In his statement Kelechi said that Ruben Garcia, Huesca’s sporting director, tried to prevent him from going to the African Cup of Nations as it wasn’t an important tournament in his book.
This came after months of Huesca pressuring him to sign a new contract, even withholding pay to try and force his hand.
Kelechi missed Nigeria’s final game of the African Cup of Nations through illness and was too ill to return to Spain.
The doctor that treated him advised him not to fly and to keep testing for covid-19 until his symptoms cleared. Kelechi notified Huesca about this.
Kelechi then returned to Spain and Huesca opened up disciplinary proceedings against him, suspending him indefinitely and not allowing him to come to the training ground despite the fact he provided a doctor’s note explaining his lateness.
The Spanish Players’ Union AFE became involved in the case and accused Huesca of committing procedural breaches in the opening up of the case against Kelechi.
They claim the club have no grounds to sack him and their behaviour constitutes gross misconduct and discrimination against the player.
In response to the AFE’s involvement Huesca backed down and agreed to allow Kelechi to return to training. But on Tuesday, when he turned up to training, his contract was terminated.