DAKAR (AFP) — Senegal captain El Hadji Diouf has denied having announced his retirement from international football, press reports said here on Wednesday.
Two weeks ago, Diouf blamed an administration crisis blighting the west African country's national team for his decision to retire from international football.
"I did not say that I was retiring from internationals," Diouf told French radio station RMC in a interview cited by local media.
"The thing I said and which was quite distorted ... is that if things continue like that, I would quit the national team to concentrate exclusively on my club," Diouf said according to the privately-owned daily Sud Quotidien.
In an interview early this month with the daily newspaper L'Observateur, Diouf said he would no longer play for Senegal and he confirmed the decision later on a private radio RFM vowing he would not change his mind.
But in his latest interview, Diouf said he had met Senegalese authorities and had asked for about two weeks to reflect on the issue.
At the weekend his team played without him and beat Guinea 3-1 in an international friendly ahead of the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.
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