The African Cup of Nation trophy is every African footballer’s dream. If they reach and win one, they want another; if they fail (Salah, Osimhen, Hakimi), they want a chance to redeem themselves. On the other hand, playing injured is nothing new in sports, as many footballers did it and will do it, especially if the stakes are high. And they are at AFCON. In fact, the stakes were a trip to the semi-final of the tournament, so Yves Bissouma decided to play even though he had malaria. To make things worse, he didn’t get the diagnosis ahead of the duel with Ivory Coast. The Tottenham midfielder knew that early in the tournament but still played for Mali. AFCON 2023: Ivory Coast clinches semifinal berth with dramatic win over MaliAnd he was not the only one, as his teammate Moussa Diarra was also suffering from the same disease, but both Toulouse and Tottenham players did not play against Burkina Faso nor Ivory Coast (Bissouma came in the 90th minute). “You know Yves and Moussa were suffering from malaria, regarding the blood tests, it’s not so serious, because someone born in West Africa is used to malaria, he could play but for Moussa it was different. It was the first time he contracted malaria, so he started some light training but we’ll take things carefully, but there’s no outbreak or anything” Mali’s head coach Eric Chelle revealed. ##NAJAVA_MECA_7845160##Still, the fact that both players were suffering also meant that they couldn’t help their teammates in the most important games of the knockout phase. Both players last started in a goalless draw against Namibia in the last game of the group phase. Diarra and Bissouma will return now to France and England to heal properly but it will take time before they are in full strength, especially in the Premier League, where the physical aspect of the game is important.
