Ghana legend Charles Taylor has claimed that Nottingham Forest striker Andre Ayew might not be injured. In a swipe at the captain, Taylor believes that the 33-year-old has faked an injury to avoid playing for his country.
Ayew returned to Forest earlier this week. He slipped after a training session, injuring his knee but Taylor has told Modern Ghana that he’s not convinced that the injury is bad enough to stop him from playing.
Taylor is a legend of the domestic game in his homeland. Due to the fact that he never branched out to play European football, he only managed 16 appearances for the national team, scoring two goals.
Now, it would appear that the 41-year-old has taken a pop at Ayew. He didn’t play for a single minute of the two games against Angola and has returned to Forest for treatment.
He told Modern Ghana: “The injured players who have left the team are good but not entirely because we know what they can do for the team, but I’m struggling to believe the excuse for Dede (Ayew), that he is injured because he didn’t even play the game. I believe there is something there and it’s not that he’s injured.
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“The medical team has said he is injured but I don’t believe that. He is angry that he didn’t play and this is why he’s not going to play in Angola.”
Taylor has claimed that Ayew might not be injured after all
Only time will tell whether or not Ayew is injured. If he’s in the squad to face Wolves on Saturday then perhaps Taylor has a point with these astonishing comments.
It does seem quite disrespectful to Ayew to even make such a suggestion. He has played 113 times for his country, scoring 24 goals and he’s also captained his country on some occasions.
Chris Hughton is now in charge of the Ghana national team. Surely, he won’t have fallen out with Ayew already and these claims from Taylor do seem somewhat wide of the mark.
The man who played for Swansea when Steve Cooper was there hasn’t really got going at Forest just yet. Now, it will be interesting to see if he plays this weekend.