Former Black Stars defender, Jerry Akaminko, has recounted how he was abandoned after his injury in a pre-friendly game against The Netherlands ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
The 34-year-old was in fine form for the Black Stars leading to the World Cup but unfortunately missed out after picking up an injury in Ghana’s preparatory game against Netherlands in Rotterdam.
The then Eskişehirspor defender landed awkwardly after an aerial ball challenge, injuring his ankle which cost him a place in the team just few days to the start of the Mundial.
According to him, the GFA only took the cost of his surgery and his recovery process was catered for by his club and his former agent.
Reacting to a comment from a former teammate, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu on Happy 98.9FM on how the managers of the national teams ignore or abandon players when they sustain injuries whilst on national team duty he said,
“Whatever Agyeman Badu said at the e.TV Ghana eSports summit was true. I knew the World Cup was over for me because of the pain that I was going through after the injury. The GFA took care of the surgery in Miami, USA, and my club and agent took care of the recovery process. Nobody from the GFA or technical team visited me after that. I never got a single call from anybody”, Akaminko lamented on how he was abandoned after that nasty injury.
Akaminko advised that to also ensure team bonding the GFA should hand roles to some management members who should solely be responsible for the welfare of the players.
“They can have some of the management members, assigned to just checking up on players. It helps in team bonding. If they are managers, they should care about players’ warfare and not only about performance”.