Leicester midfielder, Abdul Fatawu, who rejected Ghana’s national team call-up for the AFCON tournament in Cote D’Ivoire got a straight red card in a match against Coventry on Saturday.
Fatawu had cited the chance to establish himself with Leicester as a reason to not participate in Africa’s biggest football showpiece.
His red card, however, will keep him out of action for the Foxes till February 10, a day before the AFCON final match.
According to ESPN, Fatawu is notorious for picking cards unnecessarily as he has received five yellows and one red for Championship leaders this season.
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In the same vein, for his country, he had picked up four yellow cards for the national team, under-21 and under-23 in 24 appearances all together.
Fatawu’s late slide tackle on Jake Bidwell which resulted into his being sent off will make him miss three matches for Leicester.
The incident translated to being redundant for both the Black Stars and the club for nearly a month.
In a social media post late Saturday, Fatawu wrote, “It was so disappointing for me to be the cause of our defeats. I will learn from my mistakes and I will thank my team mates for the effort they gave out, and thanks to the fans for the lovely support.
“Only God knows how desperate I was to win this game and only God knows the best. As I am a learner I will learn from my mistake and get better. This will even make me stronger to fight for the shirt and give more to the team to achieve the goal we all want to archive. GOD IS IN CONTROL.”
Ghana will play Cape Verde in the first Group B match on Sunday at 2100 WAT, and face Egypt and Mozambique on 18 and 22 respectively.