Asamoah Gyan could ruin Al Hilal's hopes of making the Asian Champions League (ACL) final, fears coach Laurentiu Reghecampf, despite the Saudi club's 3-0 lead going into Tuesday's semi-final second-leg.
Gyan, who last week dismissed "wild and ludicrous" media reports he was involved in an alleged ritual killing of a disappeared rapper friend, is Al Ain's talisman, netting 12 goals in 11 ACL games for the Emirati club this season.
But the Ghanaian drew a blank on a miserable night in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh two weeks ago, Al Hilal scoring three times in nine second-half minutes during which Al Ain's goalkeeper Khalid Eisa was sent off.
"Gyan is a special player, a very good striker, probably one of the best African players at this moment," Romanian Reghecampf told Reuters via email. "Besides the fact he scores very easily he has a lot of experience and will be a real threat to us, but I trust my player's ability to control him.
"Al Ain are a strong team and I am pretty sure the tie isn't finished yet. We need to play very well to qualify, maybe even better than we did in our first game against them."
Reghecampf, 39, joined Al Hilal in May, having coached Steau Bucharest to successive Romanian championships.
By that time, Al Hilal had overcame some early struggles in the ACL group stage to win four of their next five matches to reach the quarter-finals before the competition's summer break.