Swansea could pull Wilfried Bony out of the Ivory Coast squad over Ebola
Football
By
Reuters
| Oct 18, 2014
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| Wilfried Bony |
Garry Monk will get tough in order to avoid Wilfried Bony being thrown into an Ebola nightmare.
The Ivory Coast striker is set to travel to Sierra Leone for a key African Cup of Nations qualifiers next month, along with Manchester City’s Yaya Toure and Newcastle’s Cheick Tiote.
The West African nation has been at the centre of the deadly Ebola outbreak.
Of the 4,500 deaths from the virus, 1,200 have come in Sierra Leone and 425 new cases were reported just last week.
Swansea boss Monk will withdraw Bony from international duty to ensure his £12million striker, scorer of 25 goals last season, is not put in harm’s way.
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He said: “We paid a lot of money for Wilfried, and you have to look after your assets.
“Our medical team and doctors will converse with him, which is the most important thing. If there are any concerns between us and we feel this could really be a problem then we would have to pull him out.
“I am not here to stop any player representing his country. But if you have an asset like that and there were major concerns the liability lies with us, not their country or federation.
“Players would have to understand and Wilf is a clever lad.”
Bony only returned from his country’s back-to-back qualifiers against DR Congo on Friday, but is expected to be involved in Sunday’s Premier League clash at Stoke.