Ghana midfielder Michael Essien and his lawyers are considering filing a lawsuit against the Nigerian media that reported he had contracted Ebola.

Online Nigerian newspaper, NewsWireNGR, were the first to publish the story after seemingly duped by tweets from Twitter user @YuryAlkaev – who claims to be a sports journalist.

He claimed that AC Milan had confirmed that Essien had caught the deadly virus.

Essien took to micro-blogging website Twitter to deny the news and the former Chelsea star is not taking the issue lightly at all.

“I was relaxing on Sunday evening at home when [Milan doctor Rodolfo] Tavana called me with this news, but I told him that it was absolutely not true,” Essien said.

“At first I smiled, but then not so much because this is not something to be trifled with. I have spoken to my lawyers to figure out what can be done.

“You cannot invent news. I do not have Ebola.”