Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor refused to get on a Togo team plane ahead of a World Cup qualifier because he feared it would crash.

According to the Daily Express, the plane bound for Zambia left without the Gunners star.

The reports claim he had persuaded his team-mates not to fly a day earlier because there were rumours it would crash.

His one condition for boarding was that the president of the Togo Football Federation should also get on.

He told the paper: "My life is very dear to me and, if we have to go down, we'll all go down together with the president.

"There are rumours that, if we get on, the aircraft will go down."

Adebayor refused to board the flight when president tata Avlessi Adagio de Mass said a family bereavement prevented his making the flight.