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Pompey deny striker chance to see Olympic final

Former Olympic gold medallist and current Nigerian senior team captain Nwankwo Kanu has been denied permission to fly to Beijing to see the Nigerian Olympic team go for gold in the finals of the football on Saturday.

"I want to travel to China to cheer the boys and I told my club but they want to let me go," Kanu, who captained Nigeria to Olympic gold in 1996 told KickOffNigeria.com.

"When I first asked, they said the team was not in the final, but I told them that I know the boys will make it to the final because I believe in them. Now that they have done it, I will speak to them again and hopefully, I can still make it to China," Kanu said.

"The teak is good already so there is nothing I can tell them except to say that they should keep doing what they are doing," Kanu told KickOffNigeria.com on Tuesday after seeing the team blow Belgium away 4-1.

"They should stay focused and committed, play every ball like it is the last one and make sure they don't give their opponents any space then hope for luck to go their way also."

Argentina beat South American neighbours Brazil 3-0 to book their own place in the final but Kanu said the players had nothing to fear.

"Its 11 men against 11 men. This is no time to look at names. They should go their believing in themselves because they have made it to the final on merit and they should not be worried about anybody but just play their normal game.

"I believe these boys are good enough to win the gold medal."

Ordinarily I would say let him go, however considering the amount of pre-season work he missed due to him messing about in his contract talks and being on international duty we can't afford to see him wander around the world again considering we are playing current Premier League champions Manchester United on Monday night and may need to call on him.

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