Ghana coach Avram Grant has poured glowing tribute on his ailing captain Asamoah Gyan for his injury time heroics in the 1-0 win over Algeria on Friday.
The Black Stars captain scored in injury time to hand the Black Stars a win over the tournament favourites to revive their campaign at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
Gyan has not fully trained with the team since arriving in Equatorial Guinean for the competition.
The Al Ain ace has been battling illness but gathered enough strength to last the entire duration and more crucially score at the depth in Friday’s game played in Mongomo.
Coach Avram Grant in hailing his captain as ‘one of the greatest’, revealed the 29-year-old was not even fit to play the game.
“He [Asamoah Gyan] was not fit,” Grant revealed.
“Asamoah Gyan was not fit, he didn’t train like he needed to train but you know, he is Asamoah Gyan.
“If you look at his stats, if you look at his behaviour in the dressing room you will know he is a great player. He is one of the greatest.
“No doubt about this. First he is always scoring when you need him and second he is good for the spirit of the team, he is a very good captain.
“And I think you could imagine what would have happened if he had played the first game.
“I said the team did a good effort in the first game but look at [Manchester] City without Yaya Toure.
“We played well in the first game compared to our quality but today we played with Asamoah Gyan, he made the difference.
“But he was not fit and for him to put this effort for 96 minutes when you are sick, I don’t take it for granted.”
Ghana have now bounced back from their opening Group C defeat to Senegal to brighten their chances of progression in the tournament.
The Black Stars will now take on South Africa in their final group game on Tuesday.