Kofi Kyereh: Injured Ghana midfielder begins light training as he nears recovery

The 28-year-old suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in February 2023 and hasn’t kicked a ball since.

Kyereh was beginning to establish himself at Freiburg, having joined the Bundesliga outfit from St. Pauli, before the injury halted his momentum.

The midfielder was initially ruled out for six months but he had a setback in his rehabilitation, leading to a prolonged spell on the sidelines.

Having been out for over a year, Kyereh has made progress in his recovery and has now started training individually.

Although he has only been undertaking light training, he is currently in end-stage rehabilitation as he nears a comeback to active football.

Kyereh was part of Ghana’s squad for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup but got injured just two months after the tournament.

He has since missed the Black Stars’ 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in the Ivory Coast and is unlikely to recover in time for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in June.

Kofi Kyereh at the 2022 FIFA World Cup Pulse Ghana

Meanwhile, Kyereh has said, as a kid, he had a passion for both athletics and football but had to settle on the latter due to his mother’s insistence.

Kyereh was born in Ghana and was only two years old when his parents (a Ghanaian father and a German mother) relocated to Germany.

However, he still holds a strong connection with his roots and didn’t think twice about playing for the country of his birth when the opportunity came.

Speaking to Pulse.com.gh in an exclusive interview on how he became a professional footballer, the midfielder said he had a passion for both football and athletics while growing up.

Kofi Kyereh in training for the Black Stars Pulse Ghana

According to him, he was involved in both sports but his mother insisted that he chose one, which led him to pick football.

“It started when I was a little kid in Braunschweig (Germany), which is a small village. I started playing football and athletics,” Kyereh told Pulse.com.gh in 2022.

“Those were my passion around that time and I just had fun playing football, it became over the years too much for my mum to bring me back and forth with both sports so she asked me to decide and I said I liked football more.”

Kyereh has played 18 times for Ghana since making his debut in 2021.