Emmanuel Adebayor: I keep telling myself 'you could be in a coffin now'

Emmanuel Adebayor admits he will forever be haunted by the horrific gun attack on the Togo team bus.

Even though Adebayor is back playing and scoring for Manchester City, he cannot get the terrible events of January 8 out of his head. 

He knows he is lucky to be alive after terrorists opened fire on the Togo squad at the Africa Cup of Nations in Angola, killing three people, including the assistant coach.

The striker treasures every day of what he sees as his second life and dedicated his superb volley against Bolton - his ninth in 16 league games for City - to his murdered friends.

Adebayor, who has scored three goals in his three games back following the atrocity, claims everything he achieves during the rest of the career will be for them.

"After Angola I'm just happy to be on a football pitch," said the former Arsenal star.

"When it happened on January 8, a Friday, around 2pm, I told myself that I may never be on a football pitch again, that I might never score goals any more. But God took a hand. 

"Some people passed away, and you have to be playing for them now. Every time you put the shirt on, you have to be scoring for them. You have to enjoy it.

"I could have been buried somewhere. I love scoring goals, but whenever I do now, I say 'yes, you are scoring goals - you could be in a coffin now, you could be in Paradise, I don't know'. It's very hard."

Adebayor, 25, is clearly still coming to terms with what happened in Cabinda, despite his time away with his family.

He finds great comfort in the daily routine of training and playing with his City colleagues and is focused on trying to land them a Champions League spot.

However he has warned his team-mates that they will only achieve their goal of a top-four finish if they improve their away form. 

City have lost their last two League away games at Everton and Hull and face Stoke at the Britannia Stadium on Tuesday - just 72 hours after playing them in the FA Cup - in their game in hand.

Adebayor knows the Blues cannot afford any slip-ups and says they must be up for the fight against Tony Pulis' physical and direct side.

"The most important thing is to keep trying to win games," he said. "I think we are doing it well and we have a lot of good players.

"After what happened at Hull, it was very important for us to beat Bolton so I'm very happy.

"At home we are playing quite well, but we have to focus on our game away from home and work on that. If we do, we can be dangerous for any team in this league."

Adebayor is confident Roberto Mancini can solve this glitch and he is impressed with what he has seen of the Italian from their short time working together.

He joked that Mancini is the stereotypical Italian - obsessed by tactics and clean sheets.

"He's Italian and they like working on tactics," said Adebayor. "I'm very pleased. He's doing the job well. He's told me to always be in front of the posts, and I'll keep doing my job."