Accra Hearts of Oak right back Caleb Amankwah has been enduring excruciating injury he suffered getting to the latter stages of the just-ended season of the 2022/2023 Ghana Premier League, and seems to have been left to his fate regarding treatments by the club which won the premier league and FA Cup titles.
The former WAFA, Aduana Stars defender got injured while playing for Hearts of Oak in April, which ruled him out of a couple of matches in April and May and failed to feature consistently for the club getting to the tail of the league season. One would expect that proactive measures to see to the player’s treatment would be taken by Accra Hearts of Oak, especially considering his relevance to the club. Still, the situation seems to be the opposite of the expected actions.
In an interview with ghanasportspage.com, Caleb was asked whether Hearts of Oak has taken full responsibility for his injury, bearing the financial obligations to ensure he is back on his feet, but the 25-year-old failed to answer in the affirmative. Though he did not state categorically whether or not the club ignored him, his submissions utterly implied exactly the same.
”I came through a match I was playing for the club and not an unsanctioned match, so so far as I got injured it’s the club that was supposed to take over and treat me. But you should ask whether I have gotten something after I got injured, whether I have recovered or not. Up to now as we speak my contract (with Accra Hearts of Oak) is still valid, and like someone can just call me even to ask how I’m doing or something but I have not received a call from anybody (referring to the club officials)”, he narrated.
The disappointed defender stressed, that once it’s his own leg, he cannot sit down to rely on someone. To him, he has to take responsibility and treat himself before he ends up losing his career to injury hoping that the club will rather come to his aid. Caleb believes that the club is not appreciative of whatever he is doing for the club despite the risk to play matches through injury, and that is why he had to take a break (getting to the end of the season) to treat himself.
“I see it that well, it’s my own leg so if I sit down counting on someone, it’s a human being and will disappoint me so I have to fight and go do what I have to do in order to recover. It’s not like I have any negative impasse with them. When we were about to play against (Asante) Kotoko in Accra they called and I went without complaining. I came to play and after that, I even played other matches too”, Caleb recalled.
He revealed playing through injury but was not appreciated, and he felt so bad to the point of crying whenever training time was due.
“But you see, assuming you sew a dress and work with it for so long and you keep washing it over and over again, it will get to a time that the thread will get thorn, implying that it has become weak. So it got to a time and I realised that so far as I have been forced to play with it till now, it’s like even if I’m going to train then it turns sad for me then I start crying. I was doing it with force (risk) so it got to a point that I had to stop and go to treat myself. Because if I am doing something and humanity is not appreciating or those I’m doing it for are not appreciative of it, then I would have to stop. So that was why I had to come home and treat it”, he explained.
Caleb Amankwah has been to the rescue of Accra Hearts of Oak on important occasions in the just-ended league season, scoring the only goal for Hearts of Oak against Asante Kotoko, their arch-rivals on May 3 during a league match which also served as the game for the President’s Cup, which Hearts of Oak won by a lone goal.
