The Ghana Football Association has explained that Anderlecht striker, Majeed Ashimeru, was excluded from the Black Stars squad to face Nigeria in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers because he was injured in the last minute.
The midfielder’s exclusion from Otto Addo’s 27-man squad caused outrage on social media, with former Ghana captain, Asamoah Gyan describing it as nonsense.
But in a statement Tuesday evening, the GFA explained that Ashimeru, along with Antoine Semenyoh, Baba Abdul Rahman, Samuel Owusu, Richmond Boakye Yiadom and Kamaldeen Sulemana, was included in the initially squad before injury forced him and the others to pull out last minute.
“Team Doctors of the respective clubs of the players wrote and officially inform the GFA of their injury situations and confirmed their unavailability for the double-header against Nigeria,” the statement added.
The team arrived in Kumasi on Tuesday afternoon and held their first training at the Baba Yara Stadium later that evening.
Ghana will play the first leg in Kumasi on Friday 25th August, 2022 in Kumasi with the return leg to be hosted in Abuja four days later.
The winner over two legs will book one of Africa’s five slots for the 2022 World Cup to be hosted in Qatar at the end of the year.