Injuries rob teams of stars in Africa Cup of Nations

IIN LIBREVILLE, GABON

There is a crisis in the making here as teams continue losing key players through injury. Some of these injuries have been attributed to deplorable state of the playing pitches. Only six days into this 23-day competition, and chasing an unprecedented eighth continental title, Egypt have only one fit goalkeeper - 44-year-old third-choice Essam El Hadary - to count on ahead of their remaining group matches against Uganda and Ghana.

Egypt’s two goalies Ahmed El Shenewy and Sherif Ekramy are on the treatment table. Zamalek’s Shenewy was forced off in Egypt’s opening match against Mali last Saturday with a suspected hamstring strain and could be out for the rest of the tournament. Ekramy, attached to Al Ahly, was injured in training last week and his date of return to competitive action isn’t known yet.
Tournament rules bar teams  from replacing their 23-man squads once the tournament has kicked off.
“The last window of replacing the player is 24 hours to the start of the tournament, and even then, you have to secure clearance from CAF’s medical team,” Caf’s media officer Junior Binyam told Daily Nation Sport.

El Hadary, who beat his 39-year-old compatriot Hossam Hassam’s record of appearances in this competition, is the only hope for the Pharaohs between the sticks for the time being.

“We’ll have to wrap him in cotton wool. I don’t want to even see him in training,” joked Egypt’s Argentine coach Hector Cuper. Hosts Gabon are sweating on the fitness of two of their dependable stars for their final Group A match, a must-win game against Cameroon. Key midfielder Mario Lemina has been ruled out for the rest of the tournament after being stretchered off in their 1-1 draw against Guinea Bissau. Then coach Jose Antonio Camacho withdrew fullback Johann Obiang in the first half of Gabon’s second group A game against Burkina Faso.

At the same time, Ghana’s fullback Baba Rahman has also been ruled out for the rest of the competition.

Statistically, this translates to eight players injured in eight games, an average of a player a game.

So what could be causing all this breakdown?

“The pitch isn’t good and one has to protect himself,” Uganda’s Belgium-based star Farouk Miya said on Thursday.

The 21-year-old added: “Like this one here (Port Gentil) is hard. When you jump you feel the impact, even when sprinting, at some point I also felt my hamstrings. I also noticed that the senior players here aren’t running so much."

A closer inspection at the Stade Port Gentil pitch shows that the freshly laid turf still has several tracts of sand. In fact, the Caf inspection team has barred the teams from training here in the meantime.