Nigeria Women’s Football League (NWFL) player, Ifeoma Marvellous Onwuegbuchulam, has appealed for financial assistance to raise N3.5 million for a corrective surgery months after a motor accident left her bedridden.
Onwuegbuchulam, who previously featured for Inneh Queens of Benin City and FCT Queens of Abuja before joining Osun Queens, was involved in the accident on July 5 in the Olonkoro area of Osogbo. She said the surgery is crucial for her to walk again.
A product of the Community Action Through Sports (CATS) youth development programme, she said she sustained multiple fractures when a car rammed into the commercial motorcycle she was riding.
Read Also: Guinea-Bissau incident not coup, but more painful than losing to Buhari – Jonathan
Four months after the crash, the defender remains confined to a wheelchair and requires a second and final surgical procedure at Asala Bone Centre, Osogbo.
“The accident was very serious, but I am grateful to be alive,” she said. “I was first taken to LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, before being transferred to Asala Specialist Bone Centre, where I had the first surgery. I need another stage of surgery to get back on my feet, but I cannot afford it. I appeal to football lovers, officials, companies and Nigerians to assist me.”
Former CATS project administrator and team manager, Pastor Oscar Ezinwa Emmanuel, expressed shock on learning of her condition, saying she had been “suffering in silence” since July.
Emmanuel, fondly called T.M., urged the NWFL, Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), corporate bodies and individuals to rally support for the player.
“She was our regular left-back until the CATS teams were disbanded in 2009,” he said. “She needs help urgently — not just to play again, but to walk again.”
Donations for Onwuegbuchulam’s surgery can be sent to: GTBank – 0435157958 – Ifeoma Marvellous Onwuegbuchulam.
