When a big story breaks, Twitter is an awesome place to gauge reaction and if Kevin-Prince Boateng was monitoring what was trending on the micro blogging website, he would have discovered a nation shocked and angered by his decision to call time on a brief international career.

The AC Milan midfielder decided sent a letter to the Ghana Football Association claiming too many injuries mean he is no longer willing to play for the Black Stars. He has adios to an international career that begun on a high and one that has ended in acrimony.

The GFA statement said: "The physical demands of playing for both club and country at high levels are taking a toll on his health."

The statement on the back of the story that KickOffGhana.com broke was the GFA's way of ensuring it did not have to be on the defensive throughout. By coming clean with details of the letter that has been sitting on President Kwesi Nyantekyie's desk for about a week now, they have ensure dthey do not have to be answering question.

Boateng though will have a lot of image repair work to do. People grew to love him here. Kids spoke fondly of him, he played with a buzz and desire at the World Cup that was admirable. It helped that he had good looks. He became the new ladies man of Ghana football. And amongst those who knew their football too there was no doubt in their minds he had been an asset at the World Cup.

But it's been all change since. The vibrant, tough tackling Boateng who started all five games for Ghana became the sulking Boateng who was injured too often, who appeared to pick and choose games and who by his actions became easily the most unpopular member of the team.

In that sense for those who know the inner workings of the Black Stars, this was no surprise. The GFA president Kwesi Nyantekyie has always been firm in his belief that Ghana must always be represented by the best available players.

In line with that he had flown to Milan a day after Ghana's drab goalless draw against Nigeria in Watford recently to convince the player that it was still worth playing for Ghana. There they thrashed out what we were told was a misunderstanding with the coach of the side Goran Stevanovic.

But issues like that are not solved so simply.

Nyantekyie returned to Accra to discover two cold FACTS: One Stevanovic was firm in his position about Boateng. The Serbian who justifiably has felt disrespected after being snubbed several times by the player did not what he considered a disruptive character in his team. And there were many players gravely unhappy about the GFA president's mission. Boateng has come across to some of his team mates as the one of those who was picking and choosing which games to play. By flying to Milan to meet him, they thought he was being given preferential treatment.

The GFA statement was straightforward in it's admission that a letter had landed on their desk. What they did not tell us was their next course of action. Nyantekyie is calm, calculating man. He will take his time on this and chances are that he will like most good managers do try to retain a man he considers a special talent.

Nothing wrong with that. You just have to hope he plugs into the emotions of the nation. Boateng has hurt a nation's pride. He would for the rest of his football career be remembered by many people who worship their football here as an opportunist. He will be remembered as the boy who saw an opportunity to play at the world cup and took it. There were many tweets to that effect.

But this was coming long ago. He was picking and choosing games and when he turned up he spent all his time complaining.

While this hurts the pride of a nation, it is not the greatest loss in football terms. Boateng plays in midfield; a position Ghana churns out world class performers in on a regular basis. A national team that survived the goodbyes of Abedi Pele and Stephen Appiah has no reason to mourn the departure of the AC Milan man no matter how good he is.

And he was good in many of those 19 games he played for Ghana. The highlight of that has to be his goal against the USA at the World Cup. We should have noticed long before then that playing for Ghana was not what he really wanted.

On the eve of his Ghana debut against Latvia in Milton Keynes, he told me how Germany's snub had inspired his choice of Ghana for international football.

"I made a decision from my head but my heart is 100% Ghanaian now," he said. And turns out he was not being exactly honest with us.

The truth is Ghana will continue to thrive with or without Kevin-Prince Boateng.

We have survived the departure of better players. If in the build up to the 2014 World Cup, Ghana qualifies and Boateng becomes committed all over again, we will remind him about this day.

They say once bitten twice shy.