When the University of Michigan shut down all on-campus activities, including sports, in mid-March because of the COVID-10 pandemic, Michigan defensive lineman David Ojabo packed his bags and headed home to his family in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Ojabo, who is Nigerian-born and moved with his family to the northeast coastal city in Scotland in 2007, carries a passport from the United Kingdom. Because of the United States' international travel ban, he's been unable to return to Ann Arbor to join his teammates, who have been on campus going through voluntary workouts the last several weeks.
He shared a message of frustration Tuesday night on Twitter: "Sucks being locked out the country and away from my teammates � seems like a never ending dream at this point! miss my brothers man". He then retweeted that message with another: #FreeJabo, along with a laughing emoji. That hashtag has been an inside joke between Ojabo and his Michigan teammates while he's waited to get back to this country.
In an early morning phone interview with The Detroit News on Wednesday, Ojabo said to keep himself focused on returning to Ann Arbor to prepare for the football season � the Big Ten last week announced its member teams will play a league-only schedule � he has not allowed himself to get too comfortable all this time in Scotland.
"You would think I'm lying, but I'm living out of my suitcase," Ojabo said, laughing. "If they say, 'Come on,' I wash whatever I need and literally just zip it up. I haven't unpacked to this day. That's how we've really been waiting. It's no joke.
"I thought I was only going to be home for two or three weeks. Then quickly weeks turned into a month, turned to two months, turned to three months. This whole time, I'm thinking, 'Maybe I could catch a break, catch a flight.' Nothing. I've done it this way for my mental state. The second I unpack and get comfortable � this is me trying to not get too attached to being home."
It was an easy decision in March to leave the U.S. to return to Scotland, but he believed the trip would be brief.
"As soon as we got signs the whole world was going to shut down, I was like, 'Nah, I can't be stuck in America, I need to be with my family,'" said Ojabo, who turned 20 on May 17, the first time in four years he was able to celebrate with family. "I only get to go home once a year. Last year I didn't go home at all. I was away from home a year. So I was like, 'Nah, there's no way I'm going to be stuck (in the U.S.) My whole family is going to be there without me, not knowing when I'll be back, not knowing if there's even going to be a season.'"
