<<Print>>

Kevin-Prince Boateng has defended his commitment to Ghana as he prepares to make his first appearance in the 2014 world cup qualifiers against Egypt. Boateng has joined up with the Ghana team in Istanbul where they are training before heading to Cairo on Sunday. And even though he has twice retired from training early, he insist he feels good and is ready to play for Ghana �I feel good. I am not injured. I had some knee problems but we are am fixing it with my physio and I am feeling good. You can see last Saturday that I played and scored two goals with Schalke that I am currently feeling very, very good�, he told AllSport in an exclusive interview. Boateng has missed the last two Ghana games through injury and has had to deal with widespread suspicion that he has deliberately stayed away from those games while keeping an eye on a second world cup appearance. It is a charge he strongly disputes. He says: �It is definitely not the case. I am always happy when I have to play for the Black Stars that is why I am here because I am a part of the team and the coach, the president and the players know I am always proud to be here. Of course it is a bad situation because every time there is a national team game I have a problem. Of course I can�t come if I am injured. I wanna be 100 per cent, I wanna be able to give everything when I come to play for Ghana.� The criticism of Boateng has been loud particularly on social media and some of them have particularly got to him. �Social network is an easy way to insult people and say bad things to them. The last time that I could not come to play for Ghana people sent me messages that we were not nice including people praying that I got injured. These messages they are not nice because I love playing football, I love playing football for my club, I love playing football for the Ghana�, he says. Boateng will have a chance to show that affection against Egypt and is in no doubt it is a game the Black Stars will triumph in. �In the first game we were so strong even without me and we won 6-1 so we just have to go there and do same and we will qualify for the world cup. Egypt was always a very strong team. It us shows we are stronger than them that is why we won 6-1 and that is why we will go to the world cup�, he adds.