Gideon Mensah unfazed by withdrawal of eight players ahead of AFCON qualifiers
By Lukman MUMIN, Accra
Defender Gideon Mensah insists the withdrawal of eight players from the Black Stars team to face Angola and Niger in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers is a big loss to the team.
However, the Auxerre left-back believes the players invited as replacements as equally good to fill the void in their absence.
”For me, I think every player on the national team is crucial to the team. Obviously, we have players that we are always looking to see in the national team and we have players that are also there to support when the other players are not there,” he said after training on Monday.
”It is a big loss for us but at the end of the day, we also have a team to cover up. I am not really scared about that, but like I said, everybody is crucial to the team, so if one player is not there, one will be there to play,” he added.
English Premier League duo Antoine Semenyo and Tariq Lamptey, US-based Joseph Painstil, Alexander Djiku of Fenebarche and Jerome Opoku of Istanbul Basaksehir all withdrew from the squad for various reasons.
Also pulling out of the squad are youngster Ibrahim Osman of Feyenoord, Switzerland-based Jonas Adjetey and striker Inaki Williams.
Meanwhile, Otto Addo has quickly handed invites to Austin FC winger Osman Bukari, Terry Yegbe of IF Elfsborg, Kingsley Schindler, Ransford-Yeboah Konigsdorffer, Forson Amankwah and Ebenezer Annan.
The Black Stars travel to Luanda on Wednesday for the game against Angola on Friday.
