Uchenna Kanu says Nigeria's Super Falcons were so distraught after their Women's Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal defeat to Cameroon that several players, including her, skipped breakfast and lunch the following day.
Nigeria's hopes of defending their WAFCON title and securing an automatic place at the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup ended with Sunday's 1-0 loss to Cameroon in Casablanca.
The defeat sent the Indomitable Lionesses into the semifinals and guaranteed them one of Africa's four automatic World Cup places, while Nigeria were sent into the long-winded qualification playoffs.
Speaking over 24 hours after the defeat, Kanu said the mood inside the Nigerian camp remained somber.
"I think right now, it is late the next day after the game, and people are still dragging their feet," Kanu told ESPN.
"We are still sad. I'm still sad. It has been long hours from the game and everybody's just been down, to be honest. Right from the moment after the game, the emotion was really high."
The Super Falcons, who have appeared at every Women's World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1991, now face South Africa on Thursday in a playoff that will determine which team advances to FIFA's intercontinental playoff tournament.
But before turning their attention fully to that game, Kanu said the players were still struggling to process the disappointment of Sunday's defeat.
"People are still in their feelings," she said.
"Some people didn't even come out today for breakfast. Most of us, like myself, I didn't have breakfast. I didn't show up to lunch.
"It was later in the afternoon that I decided to eat something. And it is just the same as some of my teammates. We've all been down."
Cameroon took the lead through Myriam Nyadjou in the 19th minute and held on despite Nigeria spending much of the remainder of the game searching for an equaliser.
Kanu, who started against Egypt, was introduced in the 38th minute for Rinsola Babajide as coach Justine Madugu attempted to change the course of the game.
The Cruz Azul striker had at least two opportunities to even the contest, but was thwarted by an outstanding performance from Cameroon goalkeeper Michaely Bihina, as Nigeria dominated most measurable metrics except the one that counted.
The forward believes that Nigeria produced their best performance of the tournament but was critical of the playing surface and the officiating
"A lot of factors played into the game. The officiating was not the best we've seen. The officials were not on their best performance. Also, the field was not a great field, to be fair," Kanu said.
"I know my girls, we did really well. We played our best game so far, but it was not good enough to secure the ticket and we were all disappointed."
Nigeria went into the quarterfinal hoping to secure two objectives with one result - a place in the WAFCON semifinals and one of Africa's four automatic tickets to Brazil. Instead, the defeat ended their title defence and left their World Cup qualification hanging on the playoff route.
Kanu was one of the players seen on the pitch crying and she admitted that the immediate aftermath was particularly hard to stomach.
"I cried my eyes out, so did my teammates. We felt really terrible," she said. "That was not the promise we made to Nigerians and it was a very disappointing night for all of us.
"We would take it as a lesson learned, and we build with it, and we look forward to putting everything right on Thursday, leaving everything on the field on Thursday against South Africa."
The Super Falcons arrived in Morocco as defending champions and record 10-time title winners, but endured an uneven tournament. They recovered from a shock 3-2 opening defeat to Malawi to reach the quarterfinals before Cameroon brought their title defence to an end.
Kanu suggested that there were some circumstances surrounding Sunday's defeat that were beyond the players' control, but would not go into details and insisted they could only concentrate on their own performance
"We will always try to do our best, to do our part," she said.
"There are a lot of things we cannot control as players, and those things keep happening, but again, we only do what we can. It hasn't been easy, just knowing that the things that happened yesterday, some of them we couldn't control.
"It's just hard when you put in everything, but it's still not enough. So we're all still disappointed."
Thursday now represents Nigeria's last opportunity at WAFCON to remain in the World Cup qualification process. South Africa, who are also former champions were also beaten in the quarterfinals, leaving the two former African champions to meet for one of the Confederation of African Football's two places in FIFA's intercontinental playoff tournament.
FIFA has allocated four direct World Cup places to Africa, along with two places in the intercontinental playoffs. Those playoffs will ultimately determine the final three qualifiers for the 32-team World Cup in Brazil, which runs from June 24 to July 25, 2027.
For a Nigeria team that has never missed a Women's World Cup, Kanu said the focus now has to shift quickly from the pain of Sunday to keeping that record alive.
"Our main focus right now would be on Thursday's game and hopefully we progress from there. Hopefully, by the end of the game on Thursday, we would feel alive again," Kanu said.
"Right now, emotions are very down. We're putting our best, and we hope to eventually secure the ticket for the 2027 World Cup."