CAIRO: Egypt coach Hassan Shehata insisted on Sunday he would not allow Mohamed Zidan to skip the African Cup of Nations if his club Borussia Dortmund recalled him.
Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said earlier in the day that the Bundesliga club were concerned about the security situation in Angola after Togo s team bus was attacked by gunmen on Friday, killing several delegation members.
He also stated that Dortmund were trying to contact Zidan, who is an integral member of Egypt s squad, to make sure he was safe.
Dortmund did not make any attempt to recall Zidan. They did not contact us over anything related to the player, Shehata told FilGoal.com.
We are not ready to accept any request to recall him anyway.
Zidan is set to spearhead Egypt s attack in their CAN opener against Nigeria on Tuesday.
He is likely to be partnered by Ahly s Emad Meteb upfront in the absence of Amr Zaki and Ahmed “Mido Hossam, who missed out on the Pharaohs squad for the biennial tournament.
We don t want any distractions now, we are just focusing on our game against Nigeria, Shehata added.
Egypt will play Mozambique next Saturday before concluding their Group C campaign against Benin on Jan. 20.
