Afcon 2023: Sebastien Haller bids to cap return from cancer in final for Ivory Coast

It was only in early January 2023 that Haller returned to full training, after two surgeries and various rounds of chemotherapy, making his belated debut later that month.

His goal against Freiburg came, in one of those weird coincidences which the universe has a habit of providing, on World Cancer Day itself.

Fast forward to this January and injury, albeit much milder, was again preventing the former West Ham and Eintracht Frankfurt forward from featuring for the Ivorians as they hosted the delayed 2023 Nations Cup.

After damaging his ankle on 19 December, the 29-year-old was not fit enough to make the squad for the Elephants’ first three games.

But that paved the way for his return as the conquering hero given their calamitous group stage, in which they lost twice, including a heaviest ever home – and Nations Cup finals – defeat when losing 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea.

Ivory Coast sacked coach Jean-Louis Gasset but then squeezed through into the knockout rounds as a best third-placed side.

“After the big defeat against Equatorial Guinea, we had no choice,” Haller said.

“We’ve come back from a long way.

“There were words, moments, which were not easy for the players, staff and everybody [but] which were necessary.”

And, after the team had scored just twice in the group stage, the return of Haller was ever more important.

This, after all, was a man who became the second player after Cristiano Ronaldo to score in all six Champions League group games in 2021-22 for Dutch side Ajax, before eclipsing the Portuguese to became the fastest player to reach 10 Champions League goals in history.