The 24-man list included injured Ismail Sarr of Watford. Sarr has not featured for Watford since November after the Senegalese suffered a knee injury against Manchester United.
Watford said Sarr is not fit to represent Senegal after being accused by the Senegal Football Federation of withholding the player from joining his National team. Watford said Sarr is still not fit and his sidelined will continue while he continues his rehabilitation to full recovery.
Senegal Football Federation said Watford had provided a trivial reason for denying Sarr from joining the rest of his National teammates in Dakar, but the Hornet had told the Senegal Football Federation to bring in their doctor to access the extent of Sarr’s injury.
Senegal said they would seek FIFA intervention into the case to resist Watford holding down Sarr.
Watford released a club statement on Sunday responding to the Senegal Football Federation accusation.
“Ismail Sarr suffered a knee ligament injury on November 20 in the match against Manchester United and has not been fit to play for Watford FC since that date.
In early December, the Club wrote to the Senegal Football Federation outlining the clinical diagnosis of Ismail’s injury and immediately followed that up by supplying the MRI scans detailing the extent of the injury. After further consultation with medical experts, we informed the Federation of Ismail’s rehabilitation process and likely timeframe of recovery.
Within the past 10 days, the Club has reiterated to the Senegal Football Federation the player’s current medical status and recovery schedule.
The Hornets have also invited the Senegal Football Federation to instruct their independent surgeon to confirm the diagnosis and rehabilitation period.”
Watford has stopped Dennis Emmanuel from joining the Nigerian National team on the claim the Nigeria Football Federation had sent the invitation after the deadline date.
The Nigeria Football Federation didn’t respond to Watford’s actions of denying Dennis to link up with his national team, as they immediately replaced him with Olympiacos’ Henry Onyekuru. Although, Dennis team mate Troost Ekong has been cleared by Watford to represent his Nation.
