Nigeria’s Kanu has corrective heart surgery

Former Nigeria and Arsenal striker in the United States for corrective cardiac surgery.

Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu, left, had an excellent career at Arsenal. Erik Hannemann / AFP

ABUJA // Nwankwo Kanu, the former Nigeria striker, has had corrective cardiac surgery in the United States, the head of the heart charity set up in his name said on Monday.

Onyebuchi Abia, the co-ordinator of the Kanu Heart Foundation, said the rangy former Arsenal forward and Super Eagles captain was operated on at the weekend in Cleveland, Ohio, in the US mid-west.

“It was a corrective heart surgery,” Abia was quoted as saying in several Nigerian newspapers.

“He normally goes for a medical check-up annually and it was during one of such checks he was operated on to correct a heart-related issue.

“He is now recuperating. I spoke to him on Sunday.”

Abia did not specify the nature of the ailment.

Kanu, 37, first had heart surgery in the late 1990s to correct a faulty aortic valve.

The experience prompted him to set up a foundation to build five hospitals in Africa to treat undiagnosed heart disease and provide surgery.

At the weekend, the Nigerian government named Kanu among the 100 most distinguished Nigerians during a ceremony to mark the centenary of the unification of north and south Nigeria.

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