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Christian Atsu has been playing through the pain barrier for Newcastle United .

The winger is at United’s Benton training base for the international break after the club advised him not to travel for Ghana’s crunch clash with Uganda this week.

He did not feature from the start in the first game following the international break against Swansea and has been troubled by a niggling injury for the past three weeks – which has prompted him to pull out of the national team’s training camp.

Atsu had been primed to take the captain’s armband, according to local media, and is seen as one of the key men as Ghana look to qualify for the World Cup in Russia. But he has prioritised his club form as he looks to recapture the performances which saw him emerge as one of the key men in the first few matches of the season.

Ghana manager Kwesi Appiah confirmed he was battling with multiple injury problems. “We tried to increase the number of players in camp should any one sustain any injury so that other players can fit in. However, it looks like injury situation is increasing day in and day out and it is a little frustrating but we are trying to manage with what we have currently,” he said.