Ghana international Abdul Baba Rahman has revealed that he nearly hanged up his boots after sustaining a career threatening injury in 2015.
The 28-year-old left-back said he was so upset at the news that he needed a third major knee operation that, only five minutes later, he put himself to bed.
However, there were what he calls “angels” in Chelsea’s medical staff who helped nurse Rahman back to full health, giving him the strength to save his career.
The setbacks have contributed to Rahman losing his bid to become a first-team player at Chelsea. Once back from the World Cup, he will continue his seventh loan spell away and second consecutive season at Championship club Reading FC.
He hasn’t been able to live up to his £22million price tag after signing from Augsburg in 2015, but he wants to be trusted that he is over his injury issues.
“I went home after a scan that I thought was a minor injury, they called to say the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in the other knee has gone,” Baba Rahman told Standard Sport.
“I just went to sleep after five minutes of this call. The third one was something I couldn’t take. It was tough, it was tough, it was tough…” he says, tailing off into his despair.
“I would like to thank Paco [Biosca], Thierry [Laurent], John [Fearn] and Stewart [Vaughan] at Chelsea. They were like angels to me. They gave me strength and always helped me to stay positive.
“At one point, I decided I had to quit football because of all the complications I had but they just gave me the confidence to keep going”
Rahman has overcome an injury past much darker than most players at this World Cup, now the question in Qatar and beyond is how high he can rebuild his career.
He enjoyed the entire duration of Ghana's 2-0 win over Switzerland in an international friendly on Thursday morning.
Rahman is tipped among the key players of the senior national team of Ghana for the 2022 FIFA World Cup which starts in Qatar later this month.
