Boakye Gets Strange Injury

GHANA?s CANNY striker, Isaac Boakye, has been injured again in a Bundesliga fixture, after nursing a weird injury during the summer, reports Isaac Franklin.

Boakye who was featuring for his new German club, Vfl Wolfsburg against Hannover, on September 16, 2006, suffered another setback as his knee reacted negatively to the strain.

Medics and soccer fans have branded Boakye?s injury as strange, while others attribute it to ?ways and means? against the striker touted to step in the shoes of Ghana?s all-time goal poacher, Anthony Yeboah.

According to Wolfsburg?s coach, Klaus Augenthaler, ?It is a strange injury; sometimes it is good and other times it is not.?

Ironically, Wolfsburg?s physician, Dr. G?nter Pfeiler, also shares the coach?s opinion, stressing, ?He has to put strain on the knee, but not too much, we have to somehow find a happy medium.?

Boakye missed out on Ghana?s World Cup squad, following a bad year with injury, having previously helped former club, Arminia Bielefeld to promotion in the 2004/2005 season.

Amid injuries, Boakye scored 10 goals in his two seasons with Bielefeld. Despite playing 20 times for the Black Stars, he was not part of the African Nations squad in Egypt in January.

Significantly, VfL Wolfsburg is still waiting for an opening victory of the 2006/7 Bundesliga season, after two drawn games and two defeats. On Saturday afernoon, the team under Coach Augenthaler lost 0-2 away to Schalke, in round five of the Bundesliga in front of a sell out crowd of 61,000 in the Veltins Arena.

The Wolves now face mighty Bayern Munich at home in round six this weekend, and Wolfsburg officials hope Boakye would shake off the strange disease, to bounce back with his classic goal scoring form.

Wolfsburg has also been handed a home game against a second division side, Freiburg, in the second round of the 2006/7 DFB Cup, at the Volkswagen Arena on either October 24, or 25, 2006.

A number of soccer pundits are of the firm belief that the recovery of Boakye would be a major boost to Wolfsburg, whose attacking machinery potency greatly lies on the Ghanaian icon.

The German Bundesliga appears to have emerged injury prone league for Ghanaian top soccer stars, after the exit of Ghana?s greatest all-time lethal marksman, Yeboah, and Playmaker Abedi Pele.

The likes of Otto Addo and Matthew Amoah have also consistently suffered varying degrees of injuries.

Injury ruled out Otto Addo for about four years, while Amoah has suffered the injury syndrome ever since he joined Borrussia Dortmund from the Dutch league.