Izuchukwu OkosiSerie B side Salernitana on Monday made a request for their relegation play-off against Sampdoria to be postponed after players and staff were admitted to hospital with food poisoning.
The Italian club are the employers of former Nigeria international Simy Nwankwo.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelSimy Nwankwo had four caps for the Super Eagles.
The call for a postponement comes as 21 of the travelling party became ill as they flew back from Genoa.
They had lost the first leg of the play-off 2-0.
The club risks relegation to the third tier of Italian football following their relegation from the Serie A at the end of the 2023/2024 season.
The team are however not able to produce a full squad as they are too ill to train before Friday’s second leg.
“We are truly shocked by what happened and by the series of events that risk jeopardising Salernitana’s smooth and peaceful approach to the final and crucial minutes of the season,” club CEO Maurizio Milan said.
“Many players and staff, at the moment, are not even able to show up at the sports centre to resume training.”
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The club say they have made informal contact with Serie B officials and received “general openness” to evaluating their postponement request.
Salernitana have also called for an investigation into the “causes of this widespread and serious episode”.
They had been due to play Frosinone in the relegation play-off, but a four-point deduction for Brescia because of financial irregularities meant they were automatically relegated in place of Sampdoria, who then replaced Frosinone in the tie.
Nigeria’s Simy Nwankwo became the first African footballer to finish as top scorer in an Italian professional league, recording 20 goals with Crotone during the 2019–20 Serie B campaign.
With 66 total goals in all competitions, he is also Crotone’s all-time top scorer.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
