The text message was sent in jest, banter between close friends. "Get your shinpads on, otherwise you're in trouble!" wrote Ali Sulley Muntari to his compatriot Michael Essien. Muntari's Inter Milan, of Serie A in Italy, had just been drawn to play against Essien's Chelsea, of the English Premier League, in the Uefa Champions League, club football's most elite competition. Two tough midfield players were enjoying anticipating their collision.
It never happened. Essien should have swapped shinpads for shock absorbers for his knee ligaments over the past six months. Essien did not play for his club in 2010 and though he was hopeful that recuperation from surgery might be possible in time to captain Ghana at the World Cup, he was last month ruled out of the tournament. Nobody in the Black Stars' squad or almost anybody the length and breadth of the West African nation would dispute that with that blow, Ghana had lost their most influential and dynamic footballer.
What is widely debated is how Milovan Rajevac, the head coach whose task today is to out-think his Serbian compatriot Radomir Antic, goes about making amends for Essien's absence. His choices range from the very young and energetic to the older and wiser options, some of whom have question marks over their fitness or their form. Even the captaincy itself is at issue. Essien's withdrawal released the armband and its nominal taker is Stephen Appiah, the captain of Ghana before Essien assumed the role and a widely admired and able leader of teams.
Appiah's difficulty is that over the best part of two seasons he has led a Walter Mitty sort of a professional life, splicing periods of unemployment at club level with treatment for chronic knee problems while remaining a central part of Rajevac's planning. Appiah led the Black Stars at the last World Cup and led them well. His goal, a penalty, against the United States in their final group match in Germany sent Ghana into the knockout round, making them the most successful African side at the 2006 tournament. His status was unchallenged because of all the Ghanaians, including Essien and Muntari, he had achieved the most in club football, and had the highest profile.
Appiah was a prodigy as a teenager. He made his first-team debut for Hearts of Oak, the major club in Accra, the capital, at 15. His energetic, strong and confident midfield play had already attracted predatory gazes from Europe. At 16, he had a trial with Galatasaray of Istanbul. At 17 he joined Udinese in Serie A. At 19 Parma signed him, and at 22 he was with the champions of Italy, Juventus. At 24, Fenerbahce, the Turkish club, paid ?8 million (Dh36m) for him.
It was there that his club career began running into cul-de-sacs. A contractual dispute with Fenerbahce saw him marginalised for a period and then released in the summer of 2008. By then, the physical problems had begun, and would regularly recur. He had to miss the 2008 African Cup of Nations, held in Ghana, because he was unfit, although he stayed with the squad to provide leadership and morale.
The past two years have been a patchwork of club trials, injury problems, international comebacks and frustrations. He nearly joined Tottenham Hotspur but their doctors thought the risk of injury too great. Ditto the then Russian champions, Rubin Kazan. Last November he did get a contract, in Serie A, where he was held in high regard on the strength of his performances for Juventus, Parma and Udinese. Bologna took him on, but injuries kept him out of action until May, the same injuries that had forced his withdrawal from Ghana's 2010 African Cup of Nations campaign.
Now he competes, if not for popularity - he has plenty of that in Ghana - but for a Black Stars place with some of the younger guard, the graduates of Ghana's success at the Under 20 World Cup of 2009. Already Kwadwo Asamoah, a footballer who, like Muntari, followed the path Appiah had taken from West Africa to Udinese, is vaguely labelled the "New Michael Essien". Muntari, who has a troublesome thigh problem ahead of the meeting with Serbia, should, if fit, take one of the remaining midfield berths, which leaves Rajevac wondering if he needs a young flyer alongside or a new Stephen Appiah. Or if the old Appiah, still only 29 but hampered by all the setbacks, is still good enough and can compensate his lack of match fitness with his intelligent football and his power to inspire those around him. @Email:sports@thenational.ae