The former striker infamously missed a penalty for Ghana during the dying seconds of extra time in the quarter-final clash against the South Americans – which came about after Suarez handled Dominic Adiyah's goal-bound header on the line – but Gyan "would have done the same thing" if he found himself in that position.

Speaking to FourFourTwo magazine, Gyan said: "If I had been Suarez, I would have done the same thing to save my country. The ball was going in, and he handled it to keep his team in the game.

"Luis Suarez became a hero in Uruguay because he saved his team. Sometimes, people who don't understand Suarez hate him for what he did, but looking back now, I don't blame him for it. He just did what he had to do to save his country from being knocked out."

Gyan hit the crossbar with his penalty – with Ghana losing 4-2 in the subsequent shootout against the South Americans after the match finished 1-1 after 120 minutes – and he confessed that he felt that he let the entire continent of Africa down with the missed spot-kick.

The former Sunderland forward said: "Psychologically, though, my penalty miss does still pain me. Sometimes, when I'm alone and I look back, I feel that I let Africa down, that I let my country down.

"After that quarter-final, people were disappointed and pained about my miss."

Despite the agony, Gyan is proud of what both he and Ghana achieved at that World Cup.

The striker – who scored three times for the Black Stars at the tournament – said: "We didn't become the first African side to reach the World Cup semi-finals – instead, Morocco were the ones who finally broke that ceiling in 2022 – but we were very proud of ourselves for what we did in South Africa.

"Ghana had an amazing World Cup, and personally I still had an amazing tournament. It was one of the most historic World Cups we've ever been to, and everybody still talks about it. We created a legacy."