Over the course of an exhausting season Didier Drogba helped Chelsea win two cups, reach the semi-finals of the Champions League and keep up the chase on a third successive championship until the closing weeks of the season.

The Ivorian striker would be excused now if he were to be found sipping a Pina Colada on a beach, putting his expensive feet up after another successful campaign. Instead, the Chelsea man this weekend leads out his country in a highly symbolic African Nations Cup qualifying match.

Ivory Coast host Madagascar in what is expected to be a goalscoring rout. They beat the Indian Ocean islanders 3-0 away in March in their last qualifying game and Sundays return could be something of a feast for local fans.

Ordinarily Drogba could have asked to be released from the weekend commitment but he has a deep commitment to a country from which he was plucked as a young boy to be educated in France.

Drogba has done much in recent years to help promote the search for peace between the southern establishment and northern rebels in the wake of the civil strife in the once-rich west African country.

When he received his African Footballer of the Year prize in March, the first Ivorian to win the prestigious award, he made a point of taking it home not only to the presidential palace in Abidjan but also to the rebel headquarters in the north.

Now that peace has returned to the Ivory Coast and the rival factions have formed a unity government, the former rebel capital Bouake will host the national side for the first time since they drew with Nigeria in a friendly in early 2002.

It is a highly symbolic match which Drogba would not have dreamt of missing even if his weary legs are telling him he needs a holiday.

Mark Gleeson reports on soccer for Reuters from South Africa