Contrary to initial reports, Ghanaian soccer star Christian Atsu has yet to be rescued from the rubble of the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and neighboring Syria on Monday.
Wild joy greeted him initial report With the former Chelsea and Newcastle United winger bailed out, however, recent updates from Atsu’s club suggest otherwise.
Volkan Demirel, director of Atsuko Hatayspor’s club, told Reuters on Wednesday that the player had not yet been found, after announcing on Monday that he had been pulled from the rubble and taken to hospital.
“There is still no information about his whereabouts, we don’t know where he is,” Demirel said. “It’s not like they were taken out or taken anywhere else.”
The search for Atsu is ongoing, Demirel added.
Atsu’s agent, Nana Sekyere, also told Ghanaian news channel Joy Sports that all his efforts to trace his client have yielded nothing positive.
He said: “No club official or hospital staff has been able to confirm his presence in any hospital in Hatya or in the neighboring country, we are still searching, so we are very worried. It has been 24 hours since he was reported alive, but he has not been seen in any hospital .
“I’m talking to everyone; I’m in direct contact with everyone in Hatayspor, the Turkish consulates in Ghana and Great Britain, and I’m also in touch with the Turkish football association.”
An update by Ghana’s ambassador to Turkey, Francisca Ashietey-Odunton, in an interview with radio station Joy FM also indicates that Atsu is still missing.
He said: “Yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here informed me that they want to confirm whether Christian Atsu was found and rescued and send him to a medical centre,” he said.
“However, in all the confusion, which is understandable under the circumstances [as you are rescued you are put in an ambulance and sent to the hospital] – they still do not know to which particular hospital or health facility they have been sent.
“Again this morning, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs assured me that they are working feverishly to find out which facility he was sent to and that he will get back to me as soon as possible because I have to go see him because I have been there.”
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the early hours of Monday morning after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.
Then there was a second one of 7.5 degrees.
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