Former Ghana midfield dynamo Anthony Annan has disclosed how his career with the senior national team, the Black Stars, came to an end due to a false statement made by team doctors.
Annan revealed that the doctor’s public announcement regarding an injury he sustained during a pre-AFCON friendly in 2013 was inaccurate, resulting in his disassociation from the Black Stars.
Annan stated that the doctors falsely claimed that he had suffered the injury while playing for his club, Osasuna. However, he clarified that he got injured during a match against Egypt.
Initially, Annan did not consider the injury to be severe, but he was unable to continue playing and was later diagnosed with a cracked bone. Despite receiving various treatments, such as injections and beach sand therapy, he was unable to fully recover.
Consequently, Annan missed the remainder of the tournament and was compelled to retire from international football. He firmly believes that the team doctors’ decision to fabricate information about his injury resulted in him losing his salary for the second round of the season, as his parent club, Schalke, refused to pay him.
“At the time, I was playing for Osasuna in Spain. We had a tournament in South Africa (AFCON 2013), so we had to go camping. There is a thing in football where if a player is injured, the club will not release you for national assignment, so my presence in the Black Stars camp means that I was fit,” Annan said in an interview with Geomends Media.
Annan detailed the game in which he sustained the ankle injury, saying, “We played a friendly against Egypt a week before the tournament, and I was the captain. During the game, there was a situation where I had to jump and make a pass, and I ended up twisting my ankle when I landed.”
“The journalists kept asking when I was going to get ready, but I never got ready. The doctor had to lie to the journalist that it was an old injury. But if I had an injury, Osasuna wouldn’t have allowed me to join the Black Stars. That thing frustrated me because I was on loan at Osasuna from Schalke 04,” Annan explained, as quoted by Ghanasocccernet.
Annan, a junior and Olympic international for Ghana, was first called up to the senior national team on March 20, 2007, as a replacement for Essien due to injury.
His debut came against Brazil on March 27, 2007, with Ghana losing 0-1. He scored his first goal for the national team on November 15, 2009, in a 2-2 draw against Mali.
Annan also represented Ghana at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, playing in all five matches until their elimination against Uruguay. In the Africa Cup of Nations campaign, he made seven appearances and scored his second goal for the national team on September 8, 2012, in a 2-0 win over Malawi.
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