Real Madrid striker Emmanuel Adebayor will not feature in Togo clash with Malawi

Emmanuel Adebayor, Togo striker (AFP)

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Real Madrid striker Emmanuel Adebayor will not represent Togo in the African Cup of Nations qualifier against Malawi.

Adebayor, who retired from international football in April 2010 following the gunfire attack on the Togo team bus at the AFCON tournament, was initially listed in the 23-man squad published earlier this week, which sparked a nationwide speculation about the possible appearance of the former Manchester City forward.

The Togo Football Federation had said the player would fly from Spain to join the rest of the team in Malawi ahead of the March 26 meeting, but Adebayor was excluded from a final list of 18 players released on Thursday.

“I never promised anyone I was coming to play the Malawi-Togo match,” Adebayor told the BBC on Thursday.

“If I had wanted to play the match, I’d have been already gone, but now, I’m just out of a training session with my club in Madrid. I’m not going nowhere for that match.”

With three points, Togo are second from bottom in Group K, topped by Botswana (13pts), followed by Tunisia (7pts), Malawi (6pts), and Chad (2pts).