JUST IN: Ex-Super Eagles Goalkeeper, Peter Fregene In Critical Condition, As Odegbami Calls For Welfare Scheme For Sportmen

Former Super Eagles captain, Segun Odegbami, has raised concerns about the health of ailing Super Eagles goalkeeper Peter Fregene, who requires immediate financial assistance for transfer to Oghara Teaching Hospital.

BIGPEN NIGERIA (https://bigpenngr.com) reports that Fregene, a 1968 Olympian, has been struggling with health issues, sparking worries among Nigeria’s sports community.

Disclosing his current health condition, Odegbami in a WhatsApp message sent to BIGPEN NIGERIA, said that Fregene requires urgent medical attention at Oghara Teaching Hospital, Delta state but faces financial constraints.

“As I look at him lying comatose on a hospital bed in Sapele, my frustration is mounting,” Odegbami said.

He expressed frustration over the lack of support for retired athletes, pointing out the need for a welfare scheme to care for their health in old age.

“Why can’t we set up a simple welfare scheme for active and retired athletes to take care of our declining health in old age?”

“The danger now is that the number of retired aging sports heroes languishing in poverty, neglect, and ill health is legion already, and growing,” Odegbami noted.

“Their stories are ugly and shameful. The evening of our lives is dark and dank (forget about the ‘packaging’ and ‘coded’ optics). 

He disclosed that Fregene, who is fighting for his life at Obule Medical Centre in Sapele, Delta State, currently need urgent financial assistance for him to be transfer to Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara.

He expressed gratitude to Tony Ojesina for donating funds for the ambulance and hoped Globacom would continue supporting Fregene’s medical needs.

While acknowledging the role telecommunication giant, Globacom, and other spirited Nigerians had played in the past, Odagbami, called on the government to prioritize the health of sportmen.

“Government has demonstrated time and again that Sport is not a priority. 64 years after Independence they cannot and will not see it differently, period”. 

“He (Fregene) is still waiting for help to come in order to be moved by ambulance to the Oghara Teaching hospital, Oghara, Delta State. He has been waiting since yesterday”, he wrote. 

He lamented that it is frustrating for him to resort to yet another public appeal to the same few Nigerians that have, through the years, intervened in the matter of ill-health of a few retired, suffering Nigerian football heroes. 

“By now, we must have exhausted any remnant of ‘goodwill’ we have with Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Babatunde Fashola, Benson Ejindu, Allen Onyema, and a few other Nigerians that often came to the aid of a few lucky sports heroes several times in the past.  Even if they have not complained, we are ashamed to go back to them again”, he wrote. 

“So, Peter Fregene is a reminder to us all again. As I look at him lying comatose on a hospital bed in Sapele and sending the suffering he must be going through, my frustration is mounting. 

“It appears doing something for, and beyond, Peter is a responsibility that ‘fate and metaphysical aid’ seem to have put around my neck. So, we shall see, as our people would say when they do not know what’s coming next”, Odegbami said.