Senegal officials will look to stop striker Diafra Sakho from playing for his club side West Ham during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Sakho, 25, was ruled out of the tournament with a back injury, on Wednesday despite hopes that he might have recovered in time for the three-week long AFCON.
[contextly_sidebar id=”YMhnpvaTn5GXWXo3WuMdGoZ3Jh7Wve2V”]The president of the Senegal Football Association, Augustin Senghor, described Sakho’s withdrawal from the tournament as regrettable and accused the Premier League side of a “lack of respect.”
He told the Senegal Press Agency: “We’re going to Fifa and the English FA. “Obviously, West Ham have shown a lack of respect in waiting until the last minute before alerting us to Sakho’s unavailability for six weeks and even his inability to travel by plane to come and join the squad.”
Senegal had wanted to assess the fitness of Southampton’s Sadio Mane and Sakho in Dakar before they travelled to Morocco, to ascertain the availability of the pair for the tournament later in January.
The player’s agent, however, said he had been advised against travelling.
Sakho will be replaced by Moussa Konate who plays for FC Sion in Switzerland.
Sakho missed three Premier League games after suffering a back injury just before Senegal’s final Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Botswana, which forced him to pull out of that match.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce had criticised Senegal’s handling of the player at the time, describing it as “outrageous” after Sakho missed three Premier League games after suffering a back injury on international duty.
Meanwhile, the Senegalese team has left Dakar for Morocco where they will play against Gabon and Guinea in two pre-tournament friendlies.
Senegal are in Group C with Ghana, Algeria and South Africa.
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana