Ghana international John Paintsil arrested for attacking wife

Ghana international John Paintsil is in police custody in his homeland after being accused of assaulting his wife. The former West Ham and Fulham defender was taken to the Legon station in the capital Accra on Friday. "The information available to us is that he stabbed his wife in the upper eyelid, so we had to quickly rescue the wife and send her to hospital," said Accra police spokesman Freeman Tettey. "For now, he is in our custody and we are in the investigation process." "We are holding him for causing (bodily) harm to his wife and for assaulting his neighbour," he told BBC Sport. "The wife scaled a wall to a neighbour's house for protection and immediately, John Paintsil also pursued her, came to the neighbour's house, gave him some slaps and threatened to shoot him. "That scared the gentleman who rushed to the police to lodge a complaint." Tettey was unclear on the health of Paintsil's wife, Richlove, who is in hospital receiving treatment. "She collapsed, which suggests she is in a critical condition, but for now we don't know her current state," he explained. "When she is stable, we can start taking statements from her." Earlier this month, Paintsil, 31, was part of the Ghana team that finished fourth at the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. Tettey says police can keep the long-standing international for no longer than 48 hours before deciding whether to charge him. "By Sunday night, we should have conducted our preliminary enquiry - ahead of possibly giving a court something to look at on Monday." The incident capped a bad day for Ghanaian football authorities, with the local FA earlier issuing a press release denying allegations of inappropriate behaviour by the national squad at the Nations Cup. "The Ghana Football Association (GFA)'s attention has been drawn to allegations of prostitutes invading the camp of the Black Stars during the recent African Cup of Nations campaign in South Africa," read the statement. "The GFA wishes to state emphatically that the allegation is false and has no basis in fact. The GFA put in place strict security measures around the team to ensure that all players and officials were under constant watch to avoid such issues at all times during the competition." Paintsil, who represented Ghana at both the 2006 and 2010 World Cups, last played his club football in Israel after leaving England's Leicester City last year. Source: BBC