Subdued Drogba fails to shine for Ivory Coast

A clearly subdued Didier Drogba failed to shine in a lacklustre performance by the Ivory Coast in this afternoons African Nations Cup.

It is far from unusual that a favoured team fails to perform in an opening game in a major tournament, Germany and Italy have being do it for years and go on and win trophies, however the recent events may well have had more of an effect on Drogba than we realise.

Drogba has been quoted over the last few days saying he is not mentally there and we now know he has spoken with the Togo players and were offering to pull out of the tournament if the Togo players so wished.

It cannot be easy for Drogba or Kalou for that matter to play in the very same area that rebels gunned down and killed three people.

Hopefully Drogba will improve as the competition goes on but based on the performance today and just the way Drogba looked it would be no surprise if we find out at a later date that all he really wanted to do was come home.