Ghana’s Black Stars will miss the services of their captain, Asamoah Gyan, and his deputy, Andre Ayew, for tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier against Congo in Brazzaville, according to a member of the Stars medical team.

The two experienced players did not play the full duration of last Friday’s qualifying match in Kumasi, with Turkey-based Gyan replaced in the 62nd  minute by Thomas Agyepong, while Ayew was substituted six minutes later in the 1-1 drawn game.

The Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has pledged the government’s support in making the National Sports Festival a regular feature on the annual calendar of the National Sports Authority.

He has also given an assurance that everything possible would be done to revive the development and progress of sports in the country as a means of also promoting unity and providing jobs.

A former national athlete, Professor Charles Yendork, has called on the president of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), Professor Francis Dodoo, to resign from his post following Ghana’s abysmal performance oat the World Athletics Championship in London last month.

Professor Yendork described Dodoo's seven-year reign at the GAA as a total failure and said he expected him to call it quits because the inability of Ghanaian athletes to qualify from the preliminary stages of the World Championship was an indictment on the sport’s governing body.

The Vice-President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, last Saturday opened this year’s National Sports Festival with a call on Ghanaians to use sports to unite the country.

He said aside from promoting unity, sports also held the key to job creation as had been exemplified by the vibrant economic activities that usually take place during sports events; hence, the theme for the ongoing sports festival, “Unity and Job creation.”

Ghanaian tennis star, Daniel Anum Quartey, has promised to win gold at the upcoming National Sports Festival in Kumasi since he is tired of playing second fiddle to his colleagues.

Quartey, Ghana’s number three seed, recently lost the 2017 Accra Open Tennis and the National Ranking Tour Two titles to Wisdom Na-Adjrago and Benjamin Fumi respectively.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the McDan Group of Companies, Dr Daniel McKorley, has announced a revolutionary tennis development project which he says will result in a Ghanaian making an appearance at the finals of the four Grand Slam competitions.

According to the tennis enthusiast, the ambitious project would involve his outfit sponsoring eight talented young tennis players to pursue their dreams of becoming tennis world beaters.

Black Stars skipper, Asamoah Gyan, has given an assurance that his side will defy all odds to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia despite trailing leaders Egypt by five points after two matches.

Gyan, who is the only player left from the Stars set up that made history by qualifying Ghana to its first ever World Cup in 2006, was hopeful of making the global showpiece for the fourth time and believes that the turnaround to Ghana’s World Cup campaign begins with today’s double header clash with Congo at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium.

Unless the rains that give life to every living creature, including the dog, stop wetting the earth, nothing can destroy the cordial relationship that the broth of a dog has succeeded in establishing between the Dagaabas and Frafras in Ghana.

My observation of the inextricable bond of affection and goodwill between these two ethnic groups finds expression in this message shared by the two groups: ‘’As long as it rains, as long as the dog lives, the Dagaabas and Frafras shall know no hate in their midst.”

Welterweight boxer, Justice Addy and Raphael Kwamena King will slug it out in a national championship title bout at the London Bridge in Cape Coast tomorrow as the highlight of the Fetu Afahye boxing bonanza.

Addy, 14-3-1, starts as a favourite against King, whose record of nine wins, one loss and one draw is a clear underdog in the main bout of the special Afahye bill dubbed, "Rescue the Perishing".

Former Bechem United hitman, Abednego Tetteh, has returned home to relaunch his career after his contract with Sudanese side, Al Hilal, was terminated last month.

The 26-year-old former Okwawu United forward told the Graphic Sports in an interview yesterday that his agent was working out a new deal for him locally or abroad.

It is what one would typically call -- in clichéd sporting parlance -- a 'do-or-die' few days for Ghana's football team as they take on Congo in two 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Between Friday and next Tuesday, Ghana's dream of a fourth straight World Cup appearance could receive a significant boost, or their road to Russia could be dead at the halfway stage.

The Vice-President, Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia, and the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, will officially open the National Sports Festival at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi tomorrow.

The momentum for the games, being held for the first time in six years, began gathering yesterday with over 2,500 athletes warming up to compete for honours in 12 disciplines.

Black Stars B coach, Maxwell Konadu, has reshuffled his squad with the announcement of 25 players to prepare for the upcoming WAFU Tournament to be hosted by Ghana from September 9-24.

The new-look team, featuring a blend of old and new players, began camping in Takoradi yesterday ahead of the kick-off of the sub-continental tournament next weekend.

The Black Stars of Ghana will seek to maintain their dominance over their Congolese counterpart in today’s Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup Group E qualifier at the Baba Yara Stadium.

Per the head-to-head record between the two countries since 1965, Ghana has won 10 out of 12 games as against one by the Congolese (in a friendly in Brazzaville on March 31, 1967), and one draw, making the the Stars the overwhelming favourites in the game which kicks off at 3.30p.m.

The Black Stars have taken their destiny into their own hands, vowing to go all out to ensure qualification to the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup following Uganda’s 1-0 win over Egypt in Kampala yesterday.

The vital home win by the Cranes of Uganda shot them to the top of Group E and threw the race for the single slot wide open, reviving the Stars’ hopes of a possible qualification to their fourth successive Mundial despite the poor start.