I believe Essien will play for Ghana in next game – Plavi

Ghana manager Goran Stevanovic is confident Michael Essien will return to the national team for their next game.

The Chelsea midfielder watched from the stands at Wembley tonight as the Black Stars came from a goal down to steal a memorable 1-1 draw.

Essien made himself unavailable for selection last August following a series of injury setbacks suffered on national team duty, which culminated in ruling him out of the World Cup. He has not played for Ghana since Stevanovic took charge in January.

But the Serbian told reporters: “I have spoken to Michael Essien several times. He is here with us [at Wembley] and I profoundly believe in the next game he will be here with us playing.

“I said I don’t want to speak about players who missed tonight. Maybe I can say we missed Michael Essien and other players like Kevin-Prince Boateng.

“But I think people tonight enjoyed a fantastic game. In the first half England were the better team. I’m sorry we didn’t play better. In the second half my team put in a very good effort and performance and passed the ball much better.

“Playing against England at Wembley is very tough for us but a great inspiration for a lot of teams. I don’t want to make excuses but in three days we travelled a lot and tonight we do our best.”

Stevanovic also revealed that he had tried to persuade Danny Welbeck, whose parents are from Ghana, to play for the Black Stars.

“I asked for him at various times,” explained the manager. “It is possible to play for Ghana but unfortunately tonight he played for England. I’m sorry for us because he is a very good player. I tried to speak to him but now it is impossible.”

Asked about the amazing reception given to his team by the 20,000-plus Ghana supporters at Wembley, Stevanovic said: “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. They are the best fans around the world.”