Painstil undergoing special therapy

Wurzburg, June 19, GNA - John Painstil is undergoing a special psychological therapy to enable him to come to terms with the current difficulties he is facing with the furore that greeted his celebration of the Black Stars victory against Czech Republic on Saturday, with an Israeli flag.

Randy Abbey, Communications Director of the Ghana Football association (GFA) told the GNA Sports in Wurzburg that the player was being offered special therapy to ensure he overcame his current state of mind.

Painstil waved an Israeli flag after the game the Stars won 2-0 and though he has apologised and explained it was born out of his promise to his friends and fans from Israel, where he plays his professional football with Hapoel Tel Aviv, the international world has reacted angrily to his action.

The Arab world has even protested against the defenders action, insisting the player exhibited an open bias against them. But Abbey says "the player's action was devoid of any political stand. Kit was based on shear naivety and nothing more than that."

The player is expected to start the last group game against the United States of America (USA) on Thursday and the special therapy, according to Abbey was to get him into the right frame of mind for the game the Stars must win to ensure they qualify to the knock-out stage of the competition. He described the players action as unfortunate and apologised on behalf of the GFA and Ghanaians saying, "we are sincerely sorry for what happened and wish to state that it does not represent our political position. His action was born out or naivety and we want to assure you, it will never happen again.?"
Painstil has played all two group games so far and his place in the starting line up on Thursday is not in doubt.
The defender is said to have promised the fans he would wave their flag any time the Black Stars scored at the World Cup.
The Stars became the first debutants to record a win in the competition by their defeat of the Czechs on Saturday.
They currently tread as Africa=92s hope at the competition, where they will require yet another victory to advance to the next stage 96 a feat the Taranga Lions of Senegal also achieved a debutants in 2002.