Mali head coach Eric Chelle has confirmed that Yves Bissouma had been playing with Malaria in the African Cup of Nations.
Mali suffered heartbreak at the quarterfinal stage against Ivory Coast on Saturday as despite having the lead heading into final minutes of the game, they were undone by a stoppage-time equaliser before Oumar Diakite scored an extra-time winner for The Elephants to sent them through to the final four.
Bissouma will now return to Tottenham and Ange Postecoglou would be hoping that he is ready to play a part against Brighton on Saturday.
However, the 27-year-old did not feature in Mali’s round of 16 clash against Burkina Faso and only came on as a second-half substitute against Ivory Coast, with the Senegal manager revealing that it was because he was down with a bout of Malaria.
Yves Bissouma contracted malaria at AFCON
Chelle suggested that the midfielder has not been badly affected as he is used to the disease since he was born in West Africa.
He said (via The Sun): “You know Yves and Moussa were suffering from malaria, regarding the blood tests. It’s not so serious, because someone born in West Africa is used to malaria, he could play but for Moussa it was different.
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“It was the first time he contracted malaria, so he started some light training. We’ll take things carefully, but there’s no outbreak or anything.”
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The fact that Bissouma came on as a substitute on Saturday suggests that he has recovered sufficiently. However, Ange might want to err on the side of caution, which is why we might not see the midfiedler start against Brighton.
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