In an interview with Football247, he says,

"I did not say that Kanu should never go back to Nigeria ever again. He's Nigerian like me. Kanu is my brother."

"I've listened to both sides and I believe haven [sic] spoken to David Dean, believe that Kanu should be allowed to play for Arsenal and not Nigeria"

"His personal reasons are very valid. Kanu has sweet blood for Nigeria and helped us to achieve the gold medal in the last Olympics. Kanu is a very patriotic person and if it wasn't for serious reasons he would be in Sydney defending the gold medal"

"I will personally be speaking to the Sports minister of Nigeria, Damishi Sango to suggests that Kanu has compassionate leave. That is all I can do and but the decision rests with the NFA."

"I apologise to Arsenal Football Club and the wonderful Arsenal supporters [aw, shucks] if they had taken my previous comments about Kanu going back home had been misinterpreted."

It seems that previously Fashanu was just trying to say that there would be no winners in this situation, and that one aspect of this was how Kanu's image in Nigeria would be affected.

Fashanu has also said that he doesn't believe that the comments attributed to Kanu come from the man himself, saying that Kanu "wouldn't criticise the Nigerian Sports minister and I know he wouldn't criticise me as a Sports ambassador" and "Kanu and I are dear friends and we won't let anybody else come in between us.". See Football247 update.

We would like to apologise too, for things we may have said about Fashanu in previous coverage of this issue (see here and here). It should also be remembered that Fashanu tried to help last season when Kanu wanted to join the African Nations Cup squad late, and his help may have been significant then.

Now, if he can just tip us off regarding the results of next weekend's Premiership matches, we'll forget all about it. ;->