Black Muslim superstition: Emmanuel Adebayor's older brother Kola claims that the striker has been brainwashed by Islamic spiritual healers into thinking their mother used black magic to sabotage his form on the pitch

Kola, 42, a truck driver based in Bremen, Germany, said: "[Emmanuel] has been brainwashed by these Muslim alfas - spiritual men - who prophesise when he scores goals and why he is not playing well. They have convinced him his sister and mother put juju curses on him. My mother is very sad. Every day she is crying. I just talked to her on the phone and she was crying again." Adebayor was recently moved to deny accusations from his sister Maggie that he had kicked their mum Alice out of his house in Africa because he thought she had performed Juju curses on him. Maggie claimed on radio station Peace FM in neighboring Ghana that the Premier League striker was refusing to give his mother money and has not seen her in over a year. She said that their mother was selling polythene bags, padlocks and other things to provide for her family.