Nigel Pearson’s message to Ghana FA as Bristol City star Antoine Semenyo called-up

Nigel Pearson hopes ‘common sense prevails’ when Bristol City’s Antoine Semenyo links up for international duty with Ghana.

The 22-year-old has been called up by the Black Stars for their friendlies against Brazil and Nicaragua which take place in the next fortnight.

He will link up with one of the World Cup hopefuls after getting past the next three league matches against Preston North End, Norwich City and Burnley.

Semenyo has been limited to cameo appearances off of the bench as he builds up his fitness, which have been successful. He has scored against Wycombe, Blackpool and Huddersfield Town when he has been given 30-minute outings.

There is a hope from Nigel Pearson that the Ghana FA will follow a similar handling of their player to avoid undoing the progress they have made since his injury.

He said: “We need to make sure that his recovery continues. The nature of his injury is that it is really important that we are mindful of the amount of exposure.

“Hopefully the Ghanaian FA will be sympathetic to our requirements and the players requirements because I think Chris (Hughton) would like him for the World Cup and obviously Antoine wants to be available for us and the national side. Common sense should prevail I think.”

Semenyo faces a juggling act of hoping to impress manager Otto Addo, as well as managing his injury correctly, so he avoids misses out entirely due to injury.

This will be the last chance to personally impress the boss as he hopes to force his way into the World Cup squad. Any aggravation of an injury however could hamper those plans, whilst City need him for their Championship matches.

After recovering from his shin injury, Pearson revealed that rather than giving him game time in the Under-21’s to build his match fitness up, he would be best suited being an impact player.

Pearson added though: “That is still a few months away in which it’s continued recovery time.

“By the time he gets to that point, hopefully we’re not thinking in the same sort of terms.

“We just decided that for him, bringing him back as an impact player in the first-team was better.”