Chelsea stars Essien, Drogba must stay to rescue African football

Former Sierra Leone manager Leroy Rosenior believes Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Michael Essien need to stay in Angola to rescue the reputation of African football.

Chelsea's two superstars will be the figures around which a whole continent will have to rally after the horror of Friday's machine gun attack on the Togo team.

Rosenior told the Sunday Mirror: "I would never say they would be running away if they came home. We heard Emmanuel Adebayor on the radio describe the horror of what happened so you can understand the fears.

"But the tournament must go ahead, because otherwise ***** will feel that they can disrupt not only this but the World Cup as well.

"People will look to the big players, the likes of Drogba and Essien, and it's good that they take their responsibilities so well and understand what this means to Africa as a whole.

"It would be easy for them to stay in the Premier League and play in lovely grounds and lead their wealthy lives, but they are not doing that and it's important now for them to lead by example and to do the right thing for themselves and the players.

"It's not my place to say what that is, but they do need to take the lead and not just deal with things on the pitch but also impress the politicians in their countries to start focusing on what needs to be done.

"Pressure from them will make an impact because they are like gods and I am sure if they say things need to be done quicker then it will happen."

Manchester City's Emmanuel Adebayor and his team-mates are contemplating coming home after their bus driver was killed and two players seriously injured in the attack by Angolan rebels.

Rosenior said: "When I was manager of Sierra Leone one of the games was against Togo, and on their way home one of the helicopters which was taking all the dignitaries crashed.

"People lost their lives on that, so there's a history related to this tournament with Togo where people have died and you can understand them wanting to pull out of the tournament.

"I heard people asking, 'Why did they go by coach?' but I think that helicopter accident might have had something to do with it.

"But now it's a time to bounce back, to go and play the game in the right spirit and make it an even better tournament than we thought it might be."