Kayserispor star Asamoah Gyan believes retiring from the national team, the Black Stars will relieve him off the accusations of sabotage ahead of the Nations Cup in Egypt 2019.
Gyan retired from the national team on Monday night after he got the decision of coach Kwesi Appiah that he will not play a key role at the tournament in Egypt.
The 33-year old's retirement came as a shock to Ghanaians, with just a little over a month to the Africa Cup of Nations.
The player, who has had an outstanding 16-year career with the Black Stars that has seen him go on to become Ghana's all time leading scorer hinted it will be good for him to leave the national team than to be accused of breeding disunity in camp.
"It is surprising because at this time of the nations cup, for a coach to ask his captain to come out and relinquish his arm band to another then we have not learned from the past because if you remember what happened in Senegal 92, it was all about the leadership of the team," a close source told told FM.
Gyan is believed to have been coerced into announcing his retirement because of the captaincy row that has lived on for sometime now.
Andre Ayew will be leading the team in the absence of the back-in-form Kayserispor forward.
The former Sunderland attacker made his international debut at the age of 17 and scored on his senior debut for Ghana against Somalia on 19 November 2003 in the 90th minute.
Gyan is the all-time leading goalscorer with 51 goals. He represented Ghana at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups.
With 6 goals, he is the top African goalscorer in the history of the World Cup.
Gyan has also represented Ghana at the 2004 Summer Olympics and in seven Africa Cup of Nations in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2017, helping them finish in third-place in 2008 and runner-up in 2010 and 2015.