Sierra Leone and IFK Norrkoping striker Alhaji Kamara will not play again this season because of a heart defect, the Swedish champions said on Friday.

The issue was found when he underwent a mandatory heart examination.

The 21-year-old was examined as part of a Uefa requirement because Norrkoping are due to take part in the qualifiers for next season’s Champions League.

The club said the defect Kamara has is unusual, “but carries a great risk for sudden death at maximum effort.”

After further investigation a decision was taken that Kamara could not take part in top-level soccer for the foreseeable future, and more tests will take place to see if an operation could repair the defect.

“It’s not something I expected and it is absolutely not how I wanted it to end,” Kamara said.

“I think everyone who has seen me play, during my time here in IFK Norrkoping, have seen me as a very healthy and full of energy person.

“I’ll be strong and fight my way through this.”

The Sierra Leone international scored six goals in 14 appearances last season to help Norrkoping win the Swedish championship.

BBC Sport

AC Milan are reportedly taking striker Yusupha Yaffa to court because the 19-year-old is actually 28-years-old. Yaffa, who hails from Gambia, was signed by Milan in 2013 after impressing on trial and was handed a place in the club’s youth team. At the time of the deal, Yaffa told Italian immigration that he’d lost all his paperwork but was 12-years-old, born on 31st December, 1996. However, Gazzetta dello Sport say Yaffa’s real birthday was revealed after pictures and news articles about the deal were posted on Facebook.

Friends of the player recognised him and soon noted that his age was way off. His actual birthday is 31 December, 1996 – making him 21, not 12 when Milan agreed to sign him.
Yaffa is currently playing in Germany for MSV Duisburg and he’s also likely to be in hot water with them over if found guilty of fraud.

Middlesbrough winger Mustapha Carayol says it is the “right time” in his career to commit his international future to the Gambia.
Carayol, 26, is back to full fitness after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury which had kept him out for 13 months.
Last month he signed a two-year extension to his contract at Middlesbrough, having been on loan at Brighton, and he says he is now focused on establishing himself as an international with the Gambia.

“I think it’s been a long time coming, I’ve had a few times when they’ve invited me but it wasn’t the right time for myself and my family,” Carayol told BBC Africa Sport.
“A few of the times I’ve had a little injury. So I didn’t really want to come and perform half heartedly. I feel like it’s the right time in my career now,” Carayol explained.
Carayol, who was born in Banjul, is targeting an appearance for The Scorpions in the forthcoming qualifiers for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
“Obviously I’ve spoken to them. I’m looking forward to the official invite and look forward to representing the Gambia in the Africa Nations Cup qualifiers.
“All my family’s Gambian, so everyone’s excited and I’m going to have a lot of pressure when I do get the chance to play.
“But for me, it’s the experience of a professional footballer to go and represent your country. I’ve got quite a lot of support there already and I’ve not even played so hopefully I can live up to the hype when I do play and make a lot of people happy.”
The Gambia have been drawn in Group M of the 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers, along with South Africa, Cameroon and Mauritania.
Despite facing formidable opposition, Carayol believes his country can cause an upset by qualifying for the 2017 finals to be held in Gabon in two years’ time.

“I always see challenges as something you can overcome and that’s why they put challenges in front of you. “At least even if we don’t qualify, everyone can be proud of us and say that we gave it a right go. “But for me personally, I’m looking more forward to the challenge of playing international football.” The Gambia’s first 2017 Nations Cup qualifier is against South Africa next month. Before that, Carayol is concentrating on helping Middlesbrough’s bid for promotion to the Premier League. The club have a 2-1 advantage over Brentford going into the home leg of their Championship play-off semi-final. “The boys are really confident. Keep my fingers crossed and hopefully we can get over the line and I can be a Premier League player next year.”
If Carayol does reach the Premier League with Middlesbrough, he may well come up against other African icons such as Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba – players who have made their name in England’s top flight. “They’re massive role-models because as a young African player, you always look towards the people that you can actually relate to. “Oviously I’ve not had the chance to play internationals yet, but I’ve spoken to a few close friends of mine. “Albert Adomah who’s at Middlesbrough – who represented Ghana at the World Cup – and Yannick Bolasie who’s a really close friend of mine who represented DR Congo in the Africa Nations Cup just gone. “And they’ve all told me good things about playing African football, so I’m excited. I can’t wait to get the chance to go and kick a ball out there and show everyone what I can do.”

By Nishat Ladha – BBC Sport

The Gambia return to competitive action this weekend with a new coach as they travel to face South Africa in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
Swiss Raoul Savoy is charged with reviving the Scorpions’ fortunes as they comeback from a ban that saw them miss the 2015 Nations Cup campaign.
“We can write a new history now, we are starting from zero,” he told BBC Sport. “We have a lot of new players who are just starting out and it is also a young squad with a lot of talent.”

The Gambia 2017 Nations Cup qualifiers:
13/06/15: v South Africa (a)
26-29/03/16: v Mauritania (h)
04-06/09/15: v Cameroon (h)
03-05/06/16: v South Africa (h)
23-26/03/16: v Mauritania (a)
02-04/09/16: v Cameroon (a)

The Gambia were initially banned in May 2014 for two years from all Confederation of African Football competitions for deliberately falsifying player’s ages in an under-20 match.
The ban was lifted just 5 months later after a new Gambia Football Association executive was voted in. The 42-year-old Savoy returns to Africa after previously working in Cameroon, Morocco, Ethiopia, Swaziland, Algeria and the Central African Republic.

As well as South Africa his side will play World Cup finalists Cameroon and Mauritania in Group M of the 2017 qualifiers and he is aware of the challenge ahead.
“Of course, South Africa and Cameroon are more experienced and bigger teams than us but in football you never know,” he said. “If they give us a chance to challenge them and become the surprise of the group, we’ll do it of course. “We are not saying we are victims, we know we have the potential but we are new. “That’s why we must learn match after match and we’ll see – maybe we’ll create some surprises. Why not?”

Savoy is confident that he has the raw materials to work with in The Gambia. “There is a lot of talent here; it’s a talented country,” he insisted. “It’s a small country but they also have a lot of talent based out of the country – in the United States, in Europe, in England, everywhere. “Some of them have already played for the national team, others are new now, they will get their first cap in the next week. “I think I will have a lot of work to do to go and watch all of them (across the world) and chose a better team in the coming months.”

And he hopes that his latest post can be a stepping stone to bigger things and follow the likes of Philippe Troussier and Herve Renard. “Renard was the Troussier of Zambia, I can be the Herve Renard of Gambia!”

By Mark Gleeson – BBC Sport, Cape Town