Should I stay or should I go?

Didier Drogba has no regrets after the African Player of the Year award was taken away from him at the last minute on Saturday.

The Chelsea and Ivory Coast forward was expected to pick up the 2007 crown but he says that he was told that he would be overlooked if he did not leave Ghana and travel to the award ceremony in Togo. After a stand-off, Frederic Kanoute, the former Tottenham Hotspur forward who had finished second in the voting, received the award by default.

"I was told that if I didn't appear the rules would change and the prize would go to the runner-up," Drogba, who does not want to be considered for future awards, said. "If I refused to go to Togo it was first for my team-mates, as you don't organise such an event two days before a quarter-final. I didn't go as well because the son of Ulrich Stilieke [the former Ivory Coast coach] has died.

"We're all working for the African continent, there's a huge media presence for a tournament that was heavily criticised ten years ago. So there comes time when we all have to pull together."