OPINION
You will struggle to find a footballer that doesn’t want to play football.
Despite the fact that it’s all they do, day in, day out for the majority of their formative years and well into their adulthood, most players are still subject to the same child-like wonder the rest of us feel from a game of five-a-side on a Wednesday night.
And that’s great, expect that it also means it can be hard to convince them that they are in no fit state to play when they pick up a knock or a niggle.
Naby Keita has been threw the ringer lately. After missing the end of Liverpool’s season, including the Champions League final, with a groin injury, the 24-year-old was deemed okay enough to feature for his Guinea at the African Cup of Nations.
Increasingly, however, it has become evident that he was in no fit state to be playing at all.
Having made a cameo in Guinea’s opener against Madagascar, Keita then picked up knocks to both his thigh and shin against Nigeria.
And as reported by the Echo, doctors at Melwood were consulted prior to him being sent back to Merseyside ahead of Sunday’s clash with Burundi.
Incredibly, however, the report goes onto say that Guinea still hold some hope of the £120,000-a-week star [Spotrac] being fit in time for the knockout stages, which begin on Friday.
Quite frankly, Liverpool would be mad to send him back out to the tournament. Even if he is passed fit enough to play, he is clearly carrying some kind of underlying problem, and what he needs is rest and an opportunity to properly recuperate.
If Keita plays in the knockouts, the Reds are taking a big gamble.
