Andre Onana could miss up to six Manchester United games after reluctantly agreeing to play for Cameroon at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) following pressure from the country’s president.
The United goalkeeper has been deliberating whether to take part in the tournament, that starts on 13 January, after he was sent home from the World Cup in Qatar last year following a fallout with coach Rigobert Song and FA president Samuel Eto’o over his willingness to play out from the back.
Concerns that he would lose his place in the United first team should he go, after making a difficult start to life in the Premier League, had caused Onana to delay making a final decision, one he is yet to officially announce despite being named in Song’s 27-man squad on Thursday.
He is understood to want to try to limit his time away from Old Trafford as much as possible and could attempt to be omitted from Cameroon’s pre-tournament training camp in Saudi Arabia, where they will play against Zambia in a friendly. This would free up Onana to face Wigan in the FA Cup on 8 January.
Sources have told i, however, the decision has been somewhat made for him, with Eto’o, Cameroon’s president Paul Biya and sports minister Narcisse Mouelle Kombi all insisting Onana travels to Ivory Coast, otherwise they would enforce a Fifa ruling that would ban a player from competing for his or her club after refusing to represent their country.
“All of Cameroon follow the national team, all the country stops when the team is playing,” an insider said.
“Onana is the most famous athlete in the country now, ahead of [MMA and boxing star] Francis Ngannou. When he flies home, it is like the king has arrived. The problem is the pressure he has received from within Cameroon.”
Onana quit international football following last year’s World Cup, but agreed to return for the final Afcon qualifier against Burundi in September following pressure from the government and the Cameroonian FA, before being selected again in a friendly against Senegal and the Indomitable Lions’ World Cup qualification opener with Mauritius in November.
Eto’o and Onana have not reconciled their differences, the insider added. They “cannot be in the same room” as each other as it stands and regularly ignore one another whether they are forced to be in the same vicinity.
But such is the star appeal of Onana and lack of a credible alternative, Eto’o, who is understood to hold the real power over team selection, has insisted the United goalkeeper must line up for Cameroon’s Afcon opener against Guinea on 15 January.
Should Cameroon go all the way to the final, Onana could miss four Premier League matches and two FA Cup ties.
That means Erik ten Hag, who has stuck by Onana this season despite the former Inter Milan stopper’s struggles, will likely turn to No 2 Altay Bayindir, despite the Turkey international not having not played a single minute for the club in any competition this season.
The Onana blow comes at a crucial juncture for United, who put in arguably their best performance of the season in their thrilling comeback win over Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
Onana celebrated that success with real vigour, but will be powerless to oversee any lasting improvement at Old Trafford in the next month.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/2Oh53Ex
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