Daniel-Kofi Kyereh is back in the Ghana squad 1,441 days after his last appearance for the Black Stars. Thursday's match against Somalia comes after a long recovery from a cruciate ligament tear, a spell that kept him out for months and pushed his career through a difficult restart.
The injury that changed everything
On 4 February 2023, Kyereh played his last match for SC Freiburg against Borussia Dortmund before tearing a cruciate ligament in training. He returned only in April of this year, first with Freiburg's U23 side in the Regionalliga Südwest, and played seven reserve-team matches before his Freiburg contract expired on 30 June 2026.
A free transfer to VfL Osnabrück at the beginning of August followed. He made his first professional appearance in 1,301 days and has since put together ten games, two goals and one assist this season.
Why the recall feels deserved
Kyereh has said the comeback meant everything to him. “It was a goal of mine to get back into the national team,” he told SPORT1, in comments translated from German. He added that association president Kurt Okraku contacted him every month after the cruciate ligament tear, which helped him feel he had not been forgotten.
The football side has not been neat, but the call-up still makes sense. VfL Osnabrück have gone L L W L W in their last five competitive games, while Freiburg sit third in the Bundesliga with 19 points from 9 matches and a 6 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses record. Kyereh has worked back through that kind of environment, and Ghana have brought him into the squad after months of waiting.
He may still have more ground to cover before he is fully back at his best, but the headline is simple enough: after 1,441 days, Kyereh gets another chance in a Ghana shirt on Thursday against Somalia.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
