Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic says he allowed Asamoah Gyan to last the entire duration of the defeat to Al Fujairah to build up his fitness and sharpness for future battles.
The 29-year-old appeared a pale shadow of his usual prolific self in Thursday’s Arabian Gulf League defeat.
Gyan was playing his first game for the Boss in almost two months having been with the Ghana national team for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.
The former Sunderland hitman is still working his way to full fitness having struggled throughout the tournament staged in Equatorial Guinea with illness and injury.
Gyan however surprisingly lasted the entire duration in the defeat to Fujairah despite returning to his UAE base four days prior to the game.
Al Ain coach Zlatko Dalic however says he needed to keep his trusted striker on the field for that long to build his confidence for future games.
“I knew Gyan will not be able to play at his usual level because he has been away from the team for about two months,” Dalic said.
“But I made sure to play him from the beginning in order to prepare him for future challenges.”
Source: AsamoahGyan3.com