Former Opals captain alleges Liz Cambage told Nigerian basketball players ‘go back to your third-world country’

Former Opals captain Jenna O’Hea has spoken about the incident which prompted Liz Cambage’s messy exit from the national program, alleging unconfirmed claims the star told her Nigerian rivals to “go back to your third-world country” are true.

Cambage was independently investigated and issued a formal reprimand – but not suspended or fined – after last year’s practice-game altercation derailed the Opals’ Tokyo Olympics campaign.

In the days after the Nigeria clash she withdrew from the Games citing mental health concerns and then, despite remaining available for selection for this year’s World Cup in Sydney, said she would never again play for the Opals.

However, the specifics of Cambage’s on-court actions have remained a mystery since.

On Sunday, while O’Hea was a guest on the ABC’s Offsiders program, she was asked about the incident by the show’s host, Kelli Underwood.

“This all started in that training game, or the pre-Olympics game, when you played Nigeria,” Underwood said.

“And it’s never really emerged what happened, but I’ve had it confirmed from a few sources, is it correct that you were playing Nigeria and Liz Cambidge had her feathers ruffled and she turned to them and said, ‘go back to your third world country’?

“And, of course, Ezi Magbegor is originally Nigerian, a Nigerian who is now living in Australia and playing for your team, and as a result there was a brawl that erupted, and since then you haven’t spoken to her?”

O’Hea responded with the claim: “That is all 100% correct.”

Fellow guest Caroline Wilson then asked O’Hea whether Cambage would ever represent Australia again. “No,” O’Hea said.

Last July, when Cambage unexpectedly withdrew from the Australian team on the eve of the Olympics, she called it