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Nainggolan: A sponsor stopped me from going to Brussels airport
The Giallorossi midfielder was supposed to join his Belgium team-mates ahead of this week's friendkly with Portugal. Instead of flying straight to Rome, however, the Antwerp-born midfielder visited his home town because of a sponsor.
"I'm ok, luckily I'm in Antwerp" Nainggolan told the Gazzetta dello Sport.
"I don't know what to say about the terror attacks, I had to be in Brussels this morning... but then all hell broke loose.
"There is plenty of tension in the air, too. Phone lines are down, travelling is impossible, schoolchildren have been told to stay in school, and anyone who wanders around with a bag is stopped and searched".
"If I hadn't had a prior engagement with my sponsor, I could have found myself in Zaventem, at the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead, I travelled to Antwerp a day early. Otherwise, I'd have taken a direct flight to Brussels".
"Now everything's up in the air, we've been told that this afternoon's training session has been cancelled, and that camp has been suspended until further order".
"We don't know what to do. Will the game against Portugal be cancelled? It's hard to travel, there's security everywhere".
"After the explosions in Zaventem, I asked myself whether there would be a second, a third. I wasn't wrong. I feared they would hit Antwerp: it's a big city, the most important in Belgium alongside Brussels.
I feared it could be a target too". "
Jeepers!
