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Cote d'Ivoire's Didier Drogba eager to kick off Africa Cup of Nations campaign
The Chelsea striker revealed he is looking forward to the tournament, and sent out a warning to his nation's rivals ahead of their first match against Sudan on Sunday
By Livio Caferoglu
Francois Zahoui's men go into the tournament as favourites, after finding themselves as Africa's highest-placed team in the Fifa World Rankings, and their talismanic striker has echoed the positivity surrounding his side's camp.
"We are eager to do battle," said Drogba to France Football. "It will be a good match.
"We respect all of our opponents, but now it is Cote d'Ivoire's time and we will do everything to win. Everyone is healthy and fit."
Kick-off between the Group B nations at the Nuevo Estadio de Malabo is scheduled for 17.00CET.
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"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.
"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."
Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
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