Ghanaian player still missing as agent issues update after earthquake.
Despite earlier reports, former Newcastle United winger and Ghana international Christian Atsu is yet to be rescued from the ruins of the earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria.
On Wednesday, relatives of Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu told AFP that despite initially reassuring information, they still had no reports of the player playing for Turkish club Hatayspor after the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria.
Whereas, on Tuesday, the Ghanaian Embassy in Turkey and the Ghana Football Federation assured that the footballer had been found alive in the ruins of a collapsed building.
Hatayspor coach Volkan Demirel and image agent d’Atsu said on Wednesday that they were concerned about the former Chelsea and Newcastle player’s fate.
“The news I have is not good; he has not yet been found under the rubble,” Demirel said over the phone to AFP.
“It’s a very disturbing situation,” Gaynor Fascione, Christian Atsu’s image agent.
He added that he is in touch with the player’s family in the United Kingdom.
“He is yet to be found. “The club is unable to find him among all the hospitals,” she told AFP.
“Everyone is looking for the medical center where he might be.”
Ghana’s ambassador to Ankara, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, initially stated on Tuesday that Christian Atsu had been found in Hatay.
“Christian Atsu was successfully saved from the ruins of the collapsed building and is presently receiving medical treatment,” the Ghana Football Federation (GFA) said on Twitter.
The 31-year-old joined the Turkish club Hatayspor in September, based in the province of Hatay (south), near the epicentre of Monday’s violent earthquake in Turkey.
According to the most recent official reports released on Wednesday, the earthquake, which was followed by powerful aftershocks, killed over 11,200 people in Turkey and Syria, leaving the majority injured and homeless in the bitter cold.
Atsu, 31, has played 107 games for Newcastle and has previously played for Chelsea, Everton, and Bournemouth.
He has 65 Ghana caps and joined Hatayspor in September after just a season with Saudi Arabian club Al-Raed.
