Cameroon star Andre Bikey has told eurosport.yahoo.com that when his country came calling for the African Cup of Nations, there is no way he could have stayed to help Reading's fight for Premier League survival instead.

Bikey has not been a regular for the Royals this term after impressing on loan last season and signing permanent forms in the summer. With defensive bedrock Ibrahima Sonko also departing with Senegal, we wondered if he had considered remaining to fight for his place under Steve Coppell.

"When I am picked I play for the national team," he said. "When we go out I will return to my club. There is nothing to choose between them. The African Cup of Nations is important to me.

"When I leave football a lot of people will remind me if I played in a lot of African Cups - not just with Reading. Everyone wants to be important in their own country - that's why I'm going there.

"The African Cup is very important for the African people. It is like a World Cup for them, and for the players too.

"Reading pay my salary, but when they first saw me play it was with the national team - in the last African Cup.

"I'm not going there to stay on the bench: I think I'm going to play. I can't leave my national team to stay here; but I know the gaffer [Coppell] understands."

Bikey is keen to talk up the chances of the Indomitable Lions as they seek to put a recent poor run in major tournaments behind them - especially with Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o terrorising opposition defences.

"When Cameroon started off in this campaign we had a lot of problems. When we lost it was because we played badly [whereas] in the last African Cup in [spring] 2006 we played well and only went out on penalties [to the Ivory Coast].

"But we are know doing everything well and I think we have more chance in this Cup than the last one. It is important to forget the last one, and the fact that we did not reach the World Cup [in summer 2006].

"We have very good players: we need to work well together [and] we'll see afterwards what happens.

"Samuel Eto'o is very important to the team. We don't have another striker like him - when Samuel is on form everyone feels confident. We know that if we work hard at the back we can do something up front."

Cameroon face Egypt, Sudan and Zambia in Group C of the impending tournament, to be held in Ghana.

"In Africa all the teams have professional players. It's not like before. Egypt have very good players; Zambia are not the best team in Africa, but they also have some good players.

"But if Cameroon take things seriously we can win this Cup."

Captain and most-capped international Rigobert Song, formerly of Liverpool and now at Galatasaray, has a teenage nephew in the squad, Alexandre Song at Arsenal. Does the talented midfielder-defender have a chance of featuring in Ghana?

"Alexandre is young - but he's a good player," Bikey answered. "When he gets in the changing room with the senior players and talks to them, sees what they do, he will get some vital experience.

"I think he has the quality to be in the team."

Jonathan Symcox / Eurosport