Soccer News of Monday, 28 March 2011

Source: GFA

FA sends 'injured' Prince Boateng back to AC Milan

The Ghana Football Association has denied media reports AC Milan star Prince Kevin Boateng had turned up in London to train for the historic Ghana, England international friendly.

According to the FA spokesperson, Randy Abbey, the player came to the team’s camp with his physio from AC Milan to inform the FA about the player's injury.

Randy said after a meeting between doctors of the two parties, it was agreed the player should return to Italy to continue with his recuperation.

Kevin Boateng’s sudden appearance in London just a day to the historic game against England proved curious after he failed to turn up for the 2012 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Congo in Brazzavile, ostensibly due to injury.

Some critics accused the player of choosing and picking which matches to play for Ghana, more so when it was reported on the AC Milan website that he had been released for international duty.

But the FA spokesperson maintains the criticisms are at best ill-informed and at worst mischievous.

According to him, AC Milan in adherence to FIFA rules on player invitation had to put out which players had been invited by the national side on their website, and they did just that.

Randy revealed the AC Milan star suffered an ankle injury which needed a long period of rest as part of his recuperation regime.

He stated that because the team was only training for just a day ahead of the international friendly it was unwise to keep the player under the watchful eyes of Black Stars’ team doctor, hence the decision to send him back to AC Milan.

He vehemently dismissed assertions the player had turned up to feature in the game.

He will not say the return date of the player, a question he referred to the doctor’s of the two parties.