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Bengaluru, December 24: Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha has earned a recall to Ivory Coast's squad for next month's Africa Cup of Nations finals to be held in Cameroon.

The recall comes after coach Patrice Beaumelle did not pick the 29-year-old for World Cup qualifiers in November, saying Zaha had opted out and wanted to "reflect on the rest of his international career".

Zaha responded to Beaumelle's comments at the time by saying that representing his country was something he would "never, ever take for granted".

Zaha has scored five goals in 16 appearances for Palace in the Premier League this season.

Ivory Coast, winners in 1992 and 2015, will compete in Group E with Algeria, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea at the tournament, which gets underway on January 9.

The Ivory Coast open their campaign against Equatorial Guinea on January 12 followed by further group games against Sierra Leone and Algeria.

The experienced line-up also includes Ajax centre-forward Sebastien Halle, and six members of the team that lifted the trophy for the second time in 2015, notably defenders Serge Aurier and Eric Bailly as well as striker Max Gradel.

Cameroon was originally awarded the hosting of the 2019 finals but the tournament was switched to Egypt when the Confederation of African Football (CAF) found the central African country was not ready.

Green light

Cameroon was then handed the 2021 tournament, which has since been delayed by 12 months due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The tournament, which was initially under doubt over the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 will go ahead, the organisers confirmed.

CAF President Patrice Motsepe said the fast-spreading Omicron variant of COVID-19 posed "an enormous challenge" for the organisers but added, "we must always identify problems and challenges, and not shy away from them.

Fans will also be required to show proof of vaccination and present a negative COVID-19 test result to attend matches, CAF officials confirmed.

"I am going to watch on the 9th of January, Cameroon and Burkina Faso," Motsepe said, referring to the opening match of the 2022 tournament.

The CAF chief had flown to the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé amid concerns over the country's readiness to host the tournament.

These included worries over a lack of organisation, incomplete building work and the threat of coronavirus outbreaks among the large number of players and staff set to descend on the under-resourced country in the next few weeks.

Motsepe gave the green light for the event to go ahead after talks with Cameroonian president Paul Biya.

IVORY COAST SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Sylvain Gbohouo (Wolkite Ketema/ETH), Badra Ali (JDR Stars/RSA), Ira Tapé (FC San Pedro), Cissé Abdul Karim (Asec Mimosas)

Defenders: Serge Aurier (Villareal/ESP), Éric Bailly (Manchester United/ENG), Willy Boly (Wolverhampton/ENG), Wilfried Kanon (Pyramids FC/EGY), Odilon Kossonou (Bayer Leverkusen/GER), Simon Deli (Adana Demirspor/TUR); Ghislain Konan (Reims/FRA)

Midfielders: Habib Maiga (Metz/FRA), Serey Die (FC Sion/SUI), Ibrahim Sangaré (PSV Eindhoven/NED), Jean Daniel Akpa Akpro (Lazio/ITA), Franck Kessie (AC Milan/ITA), Hamed Junior Traoré (Sassuolo/ITA), Jean Michael Seri (Fulham/ENG)

Forwards: Maxwell Cornet (Burnley/ENG), Max Gradel (Sivasspor/TUR), Jérémie Boga (Sassuolo/ITA), Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace/ENG), Jean Évrard Kouassi (Trabzonspor/TUR), Nicolas Pépé (Arsenal/ENG), Christian Kouame (Anderlecht/BEL), Sebastien Haller (Ajax/NED), Johan Boli (Al- Rayan/QAT), Konaté Karim (Asec Mimosas)

(With inputs from Agencies)