Senegal Midfielder Reveals How They Had To Train With Kitman en-Route to Winning AFCON

• Cheikhou Kouyaté has revealed Senegal went through some challenges to win the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon
• The Crystal Palace man disclosed they had to train with non-playing staff at a point because ten players tested positive for COVID-19
• Senegal emerged champions after beating Egypt on penalties to win the tournament for the first time in their history

Senegal midfielder Cheikhou Kouyaté has opened up on the ugly side of their AFCON success after revealing how COVID-19 nearly hampered their AFCON ambitions.

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations champions struggled at the start of the tournament and scored only a goal in the group stages of the tournament.

Kouyaté, who plays for Crystal Palace in England, disclosed the team were forced into training with the non-playing staff because several of their players had contracted COVID-19.

“We had a very bad start,” Kouyaté told Crystal Palace's official website. “If you look at the team before the first game, we lost 10 players because they had COVID. We didn’t have a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders, wingers, strikers. It’s too much," he added.

Senegal's national football team squad, coach, world rankings, AFCON and nickname

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“In training, we prepared for the game using the staff: the cameraman, the kitman. The kitman was training with us because we didn’t have people for training! He was playing left-back because we needed to do tactical work.

“The first two games were played like that and it was not easy – but after the third game everyone was back.”

Despite the challenges, Senegal zoomed into life in the knockout stages of the competition beating Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso in 90 minutes.

And in the final, they had to settle the scores with Egypt on penalties to secure their first ever title.

Cheikhou Kouyaté receives heroes welcome at Crystal Palace

Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Cheikhou Kouyaté received a rapturous welcome from his Crystal Palace teammates after retuning from the Africa Cup of Nations as a champion.

The 32-year-old midfielder starred as Senegal defeated Egypt in the finals of the Nations Cup to win the competition for the first time in the competitions history.

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In a video posted on Twitter, Kouyaté was present with a Crystal Palace jersey as his teammates requested for a speech from the AFCON winner.