Tottenham release Emmanuel Adebayor on compassionate leave to resolve family issues

Emmanuel Adebayor will not be available for Tottenham's final game against Everton on Sunday or the club's post-season tour of Malaysia and Australia after being granted compassionate leave.

The striker, who has only featured three times in the Premier League for Spurs since November, will return to his home country of Togo in an attempt to sort out the family problems which have plagued his season.


Adebayor took to Facebook on Wednesday to claim that his brothers, Kola and Peter, once held a knife to his throat in order to extort money from him during his time at Monaco.

He also revealed that he has contemplated committing suicide 'many times' and that his sister Iyabo would often have to convince him not to kill himself.

It was after a training session with Monaco that Adebayor returned home and woke to find a knife held against him by his two brothers, who had previously arrived at his apartment uninvited.

'I was very tired and decided to go take a nap,' the 31-year-old revealed on Wednesday. 'I woke up and a knife was held to my throat. As I opened my eyes, both of my brothers were there.

'They were shouting and they claimed that I was wasting their time. Peter was going mad and Kola was supporting.

'I asked them: "Is this the only way to solve this issue? If yes, then kill me and take the money." It's only at that moment that he put the knife down.'

Adebayor phoned his mother, Alice, before contacting the police, which he later claims was held against him by his family as he was accused of being a 'bad person' for doing so.

The Togo international allowed his brothers to stay because 'blood is thicker than water', but gave Kola an unknown amount of money for his 'own safety'.

Kola apparently blamed Adebayor for Peter's death because the shop he bought for him 'was not good enough', and he would receive texts from his older brother telling him his 'career would be destroyed'.

Adebayor has been excused from training this week and may well have played his last game for Mauricio Pochettino as Tottenham look to offload him during the summer transfer window.

The former Arsenal and Manchester City forward, who has just over a year left on his contract, is being considered by Aston Villa as Tim Sherwood plans for the departure of Christian Benteke.

Adebayor has previously claimed that another brother, Rotimi, stole 21 mobile phones from a French football academy, a shirt given to him by the late Marc-Vivien Foe, a match-worn Zinedine Zidane jersey and a £25,000 Cartier necklace which the Spurs striker had bought for his mother.

Credit: Joe Strange/SportsMail