The 27-year-old impressed only in spells last season while on loan at the Stadium of Light, as injuries regularly reared their ugly head to keep the imposing centre back in the treatment room more often than he would have liked. But, after the Black Cats reached an agreement with parent club Olympique Lyonnais to extend his loan by another year, Mensah is delighted to get another shot with the club, and determined to prove his worth to the supporters and ensure that Steve Bruce's faith in him his fully repaid.
Nearing a return to full fitness, the Ghanaian speaks exclusively to Goal.com UK about his hopes for this season, his memorable summer in South Africa — and how he and team-mate Asamoah Gyan are hoping to bring some of the Black Stars' renowned team spirit to the north east:
Goal.com: Thanks for taking the time to talk, John. How's the injury recovery progressing?
John Mensah: I trained yesterday, and today [Wednesday] as well, so I will look at how I do tomorrow in my session and then we will see if I can be in the team on Saturday [against Manchester United].
Has it been frustrating, dealing with more injury difficulties, especially after your problems last season and when looking to build from a fine World Cup?
When I came back from the World Cup, I knew I had to work hard, because after doing 100 per cent at the World Cup I wanted to do 100 per cent with Sunderland. I was working hard for that, but injuries have been frustrating. I hope and believe I will be back soon, as we all know injuries are a part of football, they keep you down, but I have to focus and continue with my career.
Injuries are a part of football, but I don’t think about that. I look up to God, who was the one who began me in football, and I hope he is going to end it. I believe everything is down to God so I am going to keep my faith high and hopefully Sunderland also believes in me — they keep me confident always and motivate me so when I'm back I will do the best I can for the team.
What do you make of Sunderland's chances this season? The team has certainly impressed in recent weeks with some solid results against big sides.
Sunderland is a good team, we all know that Sunderland have some good players. Darren Bent, who has scored a lot of goals recently, in particular he is a very good player, a very good striker. I know this.
The side has had injury problems, but I believe after that Sunderland have a good team and can certainly move higher up the league this season. I believe we can push on after some good early results.
A few months on from the World Cup, do you look back on Ghana's achievements with pride now, or does the manner of the exit (losing on penalties, one of which Mensah missed) still affect you?
Sometimes when I watch some of the games we played I used to think about it, and felt a bit sad for where we reached, you know, thinking we could have progressed further than where we reached. But actually, where we reached we can be thankful for because it wasn’t easy — we reached that position and hope we can move higher than that in the future, but it was a good World Cup.
What I can say is we did the best for a nation, for the whole African continent, because the way we played the whole of Africa was behind us, and even countries beyond Africa too. We did the best we could for the whole continent.
When you see the chances we missed against Uruguay you can see that it just wasn’t our game — you can think of all the chances we had, and the chances they didn’t have, but we couldn’t win. It wasn't meant to be. Still, sometimes I think and feel bad for that, but…
Im-Mensah | Defender is proud of nation's achievements in South AfricaYou don’t fully know the [reaction to the] World Cup when you’re playing in South Africa. Ghana is one of the teams who challenged and represented the whole continent as well as the nation. Our goals were for them. We tried to fight hard for them.
As for GUBA, the plan was to motivate the Ghana players to push on after what they achieved. It makes me proud because they are behind the Ghana football team around the world. Anything you can do for the nation is great.
I am so happy for what they are doing and very grateful for what they are doing.
Your great team spirit grabbed attention throughout the tournament. Do you think that was a key factor to your success, compared to, say, England's?
This is the World Cup, anything can happen in football. We all knew England, Italy, Brazil and Argentina, they are the teams who are going to be expected to lift the cup, but they couldn’t go through because we all know that it is difficult.
I do not blame England because they could not reach where they were supposed to reach, I don’t blame them a lot because if you see a team like Italy — who won it in 2006 — they couldn’t even get out of the group stage so, you know, football is a game of chance and anything can happen.
 "We sing together, we dance together to build the confidence so we play like a team. There is no one player who is the best in the team. No. We all play together, defending, attacking together..." |
As for Ghana, our team unity was just so high. We love each other, we respect each other and we motivate any of the young players that are in the team. For example, as for me, I've been in the team for a while, and any young player that comes into the team I do speak to the player, I do encourage the player, I do motivate the player to give him confidence that he can make it.
We are all happy to be representing our nation, and so we are all motivated to play well. Off the field we do talk, we do crack jokes to cut the tension and remove the pressure, and make jokes to build confidence in the team. Other times in the hotel we have a laugh and play music — Asamoah Gyan picks the music in the team — we sing together, we dance together to build the confidence so any time we are on the pitch we have the confidence and play like a team.
We play compact football. There is no one player who is the best in the team. No. We all play together, defending, attacking together so it helps a lot with that.
Is that team spirit something you, along with new £13 million signing Asamoah Gyan, will be looking to bring to Sunderland?
Like I said, once I came back from the World Cup I had the confidence and also the expectations very high on me that I needed to demonstrate to Sunderland after last season having a lot of injuries. So after coming back from the World Cup I have to show the spirit best I can, the quality I showed at the World Cup for my nation everybody knows, and now I want to push on even higher than I did then to help Sunderland.
Mensah explains... HIS NICKNAME  "It's 'Rock of Gibraltar', or even 'Pillar of Hercules' as the Mediterranean Island is sometimes known. "It is used to describe a person that cannot be overcome and does not fear, like the rock itself. The one who gave me this name was my godfather, who was also a superintendent and minister in Ghana. "He was pastor and my godfather — he saw me, the way I played on the pitch, and he was the one who first described me as the 'Rock of Gibraltar' before the 2006 World Cup, because I am a strong footballer and a strong defender and it is difficult to beat me one-on-one or in the air. "So that’s why he called me that." |
But we are one team. Once Gyan fits in it is going to be best for the team, and our spirit will be good for the team.
Your loan expires at the end of this season, do you hope to stay at Sunderland? Do you like it in England?
Because of injuries maybe Sunderland worked out on this situation [the second year-long loan]. Last season the way they wanted me to play I did help them, but the way they wanted me to play all the matches I couldn’t do it.
That’s why I think they worked out on this situation, that’s why they asked me to do it to stay one more year for me. Hopefully I can play more and do that for them.
I do know Sunderland now, and I love England as well, but the problem is the injuries that have kept me off the field. So I believe Sunderland want me for the year, but after then everything is so-so. But Sunderland work hard to get me for a year again.
Will you be happy to return to France with Olympique Lyonnais if that is how things pan out?
I’m still a Lyon player. When I signed for Lyon [in 2008] I signed for five years and I’m still a Lyon player. I played one year at Lyon, and then I came to Sunderland for one year, and now I’m here at Sunderland again.
So, if I finish with Sunderland [at the end of next season], I will have two more years in Lyon so I will return to Lyon.
You club team-mate Michael Essien, recently revealed he will take time away from the national team to focus on his fitness and Chelsea. Is that something you've considered at all? Is he a big loss?
I've played with Essien for a long time. When I was in high school I did play with him one time. That time he played in my position, defender, and he was very, very good, but my team we beat his 3-0!
That was the first time I met Essien, and we went on to play a lot together, in 2001 in Argentina [the World Youth Cup, where Ghana finished runners up] and from there we continued to play together in the national team for a long time. I know him well, and he is a very good player.
Essien’s statement [on his international involvement], I did not hear from his mouth how he said it. I did not hear from him about it, I just read it on the internet and from you as well.
But Essien knows me well, he can brief me for this situation, but even if he didn’t brief me on this situation what I can say is we all know Essien is a great player, we all know that, and I don’t think Essien will stay away for long.
Essien has played for the national team for many years and I think he wants to concentrate for the club matches to see how it is, and as well once we play a lot of non-competitive matches I think he is just saving himself, but I think once we are playing qualification matches I hope he will be back soon.
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