Amad was not selected for the Ivory Coast squad (Picture: Getty)
Manchester United winger Amad Diallo has confirmed he will not be representing Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The 21-year-old starlet made his first appearance of the season off the bench against Nottingham Forest on Saturday after recovering from a knee injury suffered on the club’s pre-season tour of the United States.
Diallo was first capped by his country in 2021 and has made four appearances in total for the Ivory Coast. But the former Atalanta starlet was not named in the final squad competing in this month’s competition on home soil.
Various media outlets have listed Diallo among the players who are on international duty in the coming weeks but the player has now spoken out on social media to claim those reports are ‘not true’.
Diallo enjoyed a sensational campaign on loan at Sunderland last season and will now hope to force his way into Erik ten Hag’s plans at Old Trafford.
The youngster came onto replace Antony in the second-half of last week’s defeat at Forest and will hope to challenge the Brazilian for a place in the first-team, starting this weekend against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup.
His performance off the bench was one of the few bright sparks for United in their 2-1 defeat with ten Hag singling him out for praise.
‘In the second half, they [the attackers] were in the match,’ he said. ‘I thought Amad Diallo came in really good, Alejandro Garnacho played a very good game, I think,’ said Ten Hag.
‘How he fought for that all the time and prepared the goal, a good goal by Marcus Rashford.’
While Diallo will be remaining in Manchester, Andre Onana will be representing Cameroon at AFCON.
United are in talks with Cameroon to delay his departure, hoping to keep him until after the Premier League meeting with Tottenham on 14 January.
Cameroon begin their campaign Guinea the following day.
MORE : Manchester United in talks to delay Andre Onana’s AFCON departure
MORE : Manchester United ‘very interested’ in Everton star Amadou Onana but face competition from Barcelona
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A huge boost for Erik ten Hag…