Former Nigerian International, Osaze Odemwingie has revealed that most African football players, especially Nigerians prefer to use juju rather than seek the services of a qualified medical doctor.

Speaking to Championat.com on Wednesday, the former West Brom Albion striker who was born in the old Soviet Union disclosed that he was taken to a juju man after he broke his arm in training as a teenager when he returned to Nigeria to play briefly for amateur club AS Racines in Lagos before his transfer to Bendel Insurance.

“I had a fall in training. I also hurt my shoulder and broke my arm. I was afraid to tell my mom so they took me to the local juju man. They poured hot water to relax the muscles. Somehow they returned the hand to the place, while I yelled, they twisted some small sticks. There was a rite with a chicken.

“I came home, my mother saw the hand. ‘Broke?’ I answered ‘Yes’. I was then taken to a regular hospital, anaesthesia was done, they put the plaster on. All is well in the end,” Odemwingie said.

Reacting to a question that a majority of African players believed juju men were more important and potent than modern doctors, he added: “No, just at least 70 per cent of players believe in it.

“They think that some kind of salve will save them. This is more of a suggestion. Brainwashing goes. But the three years in Nigeria have been helpful to me. They called me to the big league and there my career developed much faster.”

Odemwingie represented Nigeria at the 2014 World Cup and became the oldest player to score for the Super Eagles at the Mundial when he found the net against Bosnia at the age of 32 years, 11 months and six days.