The Lions of Teranga will be without the 30-year-old Mane after he was ruled out of the tournament owing to an injury. His absence in Qatar has caught the attention of Ake, who features for Premier League outfit Manchester City.
“Not only him, but all of the injuries are a negative for the World Cup,” Ake told Fifa Plus TV. adding: “The World Cup is for these kinds of players. I think everyone wants to see these kinds of players in the tournament. So it’s not a good thing.
“It’s never a nice thing to see when someone gets injured, so he will be a big miss for the tournament. But will still go into the game against Senegal with the same mindset, even though he’s not there, but we have to perform, because it’s still going to be a tough match.”
The 27-year-old Ake, is, however, predicting a difficult outing for Netherlands when they come up against Senegal despite Mane’s absence.
“I still think it’s going to be a very tough game. They have a lot of well-known players and their strike force is very powerful. Obviously Mane isn’t going to be there, but still they have very good players,” he added.
“From now on, we’re going to analyse them and see how we’re going to play against them. So for sure it will be a very tough game.”
