The Ghana national team manager Kwesi Appiah has said that he does not feel that the Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien is finished as a player for the national team. These comments, after the Chelsea midfielder, who is currently on loan at the Spanish club Real Madrid, has decided to pull out of the upcoming friendly match.
He has said that he remains committed to the Ghana national team, but does not want to be picked for the forthcoming matches because he wants to establish himself at club level. Michael Essien has suffered a number of long-term injuries playing for Ghana in recent seasons.
It has put his club future in jeopardy because he was sent out on loan from Chelsea after having not played regularly. This is an extremely different situation because Michael Essien used to be one of the best players at Chelsea only a few seasons ago. However, a string of cruciate ligament injuries meant that he has lost a number of qualities, but Kwesi Appiah still reckons he is one of the top midfielders in the world. Essien has been slowly establishing himself at the Real Madrid first team. He recently scored his first goal for the club during the weekend.
"It is a situation I understand. Essien has made it clear to me he is still committed to playing for Ghana but he wants to sort out his club issues after moving from Chelsea to Real Madrid on loan. He is playing regularly now for Madrid and needs time to establish himself. He has suffered two major injuries playing for Ghana but at no point has he said he does not want to play again," said the Ghana national team manager. Ghana will be playing in the friendly match against Cape Verde, who recently defeated Cameroon.