Michael Essien recover from his knee injury until the end of July, more than two weeks after the tournament was to end. Since then, Essien has announced that he will be standing down from the Ghana national side for the near future in order to focus on his career with Chelsea, having suffered two significant injuries while playing for Ghana in recent years. Having recovered from those injuries, Essien subsequently promised his availability to his nation "very soon". Essien returned to Ghana's squad in August 2013 for the team's final 2014 World Cup qualifiers. He appeared as a second-half substitute in a
Michael Mokongo Michael Mokongo Michael Benoît Mokongo (born July 11, 1986) is a Central African-French professional basketball player who last played for AS Monaco Basket of the LNB Pro B in France. Mokongo first represented the Central African Republic internationally at the 2009 AfroBasket qualifying tournament. He played for the country at the 2011 AfroBasket, averaging 11 points and a team-high 6 assists. Mokongo has also competed for France in the past, playing for them in the 2006 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. He was initially expected to play for the Central African Republic at the AfroBasket 2015 under head coach Aubin-Thierry Goporo,