Mohammed Salisu: Why Ghana needs Southampton defender moving forward

• Southampton defender Mohammed Salisu produced another splendid display as the Saints defeated Leeds
• The 22-year-old lasted 90 minutes as Southampton returned to winning ways
• His performances has raised questions over his absence at the senior national team once again

It was another good day in the office for Ghanaian center-back, Mohammed Salisu, in the English Premier League, as he helped Southampton to a clean sheet and victory against Leeds United.

Salisu, who joined the Premier League side in the summer of 2020, led in several aspects of the statistics in today's game, and like many other games this season.

Despite his incredible numbers, the Southampton guardsman is yet to honour an invite from the senior national team of Ghana, leaving many wondering over his reluctance.

Various reasons have been given for his absence with the Black Stars, the main being his insistence on concentrating on his club career. Fairly understandable for a player who has seen a meteoric rise to his career.

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However, there is a point when player needs to make a decision about his international future. It is unclear if he is interested in representing any other country apart from Ghana. In fact Ghana remains his only choice, but he can still decide not to play for the Black Stars and avoid international football all together.

Ghana is hoping to win the Africa Cup of Nations in 2022 and qualify for the World Cup in the same year and if there are available assets around, they have to be invited.

After the back-to-back games against Zimbabwe, it became even more important to get Salisu into the team for next month's matches against Ethiopia and South Africa.

Ghana is blessed with tremendous talents in defence from Daniel Amartey to Alexander Djiku and Joseph Aidoo, but the most noteworthy thing is Mohammed Salisu is having a better season than all the players listed above.

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Amartey has been in and out of the Leicester City team this season, playing one Europa league game and four premier league matches, including the victory against Manchester United.

Alexander Djiku has been aggressive this season and holds the record for the most cards in Europe's top five leagues this season and Joseph Aidoo is yet to make an impact in the Celta Vigo team. Djiku will miss next month's games due to a double yellow card against Zoimbabwe.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Salisu has been impressive and was the star for Southampton in games against Manchester United and Manchester City. Another scintillating display against Chelsea was just ruined by a Ward Prowse red card as Southampton lost at the Stamford Bridge.

One other aspect Milovan Rajevac should be looking at is the fact that he is very young and at 22, he could be the present of future of the senior national team.

On Sunday, he was key as Southampton recorded their second win of the season, after beating Leeds United at the St Mary's.