Midfielder Mubarak Wakaso has been ruled out of Ghana’s Afcon 2017 qualifying reverse clash with Mozambique Sunday.
The 26-year-old was subsituted after picking up an injury in the second half of Thursday’s 3-1 win over the Os Mambas.
Assessment by Black Stars team doctor Adam Baba concluded Wakaso could not recover in time for the Maputo game, hence leaving him together with injured captain Asamoah Gyan out of the traveling contingent that left Accra.
Meanwhile, the Black Stars arrived in Mozambique Friday night with 21 players and are scheduled to hold a mandatory training session at the match venue, the Estádio nacional do Zimpeto in Maputo at 5pm.
Head coach Avram Grant is faced with the challenge of putting up a fit squad for Sunday’s game as three other players – Frank Acheampong, Christian Atsu and John Boye suffered various degrees of knocks and may have to pass a late fitness test.
“I don’t like to take injured players into a football game; I take only players who can play. Even with that we took three players who have question marks, we don’t know if they can play. We need to analyze them today and see,” Grant stated on the injury situation in camp.
He continued: “they are doing anything necessary from the medical side then we will see at training today how they feel and hope they will be fit if not all of them maybe few of them.”
Ghana leads Group H of the qualifiers with nine points from three matches. Another win on Sunday enchances the Black Stars’ quest to secure a 7th straight qualification to the Afcon finals which will be held in Gabon.
Kickoff is set at 13:00 GMT on Sunday.
Ghana squad in Maputo:
Goalkeepers: Razak Braimah, Adam Kwarasey, Richard Ofori
Defenders: Harrison Afful, Daniel Amartey, Jeffery Schlupp, Baba Abdul Rahman, John Boye, Jonathan Mensah, Edwin Gyimah
Midfielders: Rabiu Mohammed, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Afriyie Acquah, Samuel Tetteh, Frank Acheampong, Alfred Duncan, Christian Atsu, Evans Mensah
Forwards: Jordan Ayew, Abdul-Majeed Waris, Ebenezer Assifuah
