Adebayor stripped of Togo captaincy; Unsure about int. future

Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor is unsure about his international future after he was stripped of the captaincy for their match against Liberia.

He was only told on the day of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations tie that the captain's armband had been given to Mathieu Dossevi for last Sunday's 2-1 win.

The 31-year-old scored the winner but says he is unsure if he will play against Djibouti in September.
“ For now, I don’t know —I'll be here and I'll talk with the coach," he said.

"I need to know whether he really needs me in the team or not.

"I have been the captain for seven or eight years and then one morning I'm told I won't be the captain — that means that we can go to Djibouti and he will put me in the stands.

"So I'd rather quit the team than be sidelined or put in the stands there and I think this will be better for me and the team.
He has said that if he decides to play again he does not want to captain the Hawks.

Togo's new coach Tom Saintfiet however tried to play down the issue.

“He does not necessarily need to have the captain's armband when he plays — he is the captain and the greatest Togolese player, ” the Belgian said.

Saintfiet and Adebayor had also fallen out in the build-up to the match against Liberia when the striker was dropped from the squad for a friendly against Ghana.

The coach said the Tottenham player and two other players were axed as they had not attended all the training sessions nor stayed at the team hotel.

Adebayor for his part insisted that he had told the coach he wouldn't play in the friendly in the days before the match.

The striker has taken several breaks from playing international football in the past, including in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Togo team bus at the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola. —BBC