Joel Matip, along with six other international exiles, have not been chosen in the Cameroon squad for the African Cup of Nations.
Matip, along with another Premier League player Allan Nyom at West Brom, had told their country they did not want to be selected for the international side.
Nyom had travelled personally to Cameroon to discuss the matter, whilst currently injured Matip had not.
The head coach of Cameroon, Hugo Broos, had suggested that FIFA could prevent the players from playing for their clubs had he chosen to select them and they refused to join up.
This threat has now been averted - however Matip has not yet returned from an ankle injury that has plagued him for the last 8 months.
Joel Matip was born in Germany but has a Cameroonian father. He was picked by Cameroon at the age of 18 for the 2010 AFCON tournament but declined the offer to concentrate on his early career at Schalke.
There was some discussion about whether he would represent Germany. However he made his international debut for Cameroon in March 2010 and went on to play for the country in the 2010 World Cup. He was also involved in the 2014 World Cup and scored his only international goal in the tournament against hosts Brazil.
