Asamoah Gyan, 3 others ruled out by injury

Black Stars skipper, Asamoah Gyan, and three other key players have been ruled out of Coach Kwasi Appiah’s squad for Saturday’s crucial FIFA World Cup Group E qualifier against The Cranes of Uganda at the Mandela National Stadium in Kampala.

The assistant coach of the Stars, Ibrahim Tanko, yesterday confirmed the unavailability of Gyan, Thomas Agyepong, and the US-based duo of Harrison Afful and Jonathan Mensah for the Uganda game due to injury.

In a pre-departure interview with the Daily Graphic, Coach Tanko allayed the fears of Ghanaians with the assurance that the remaining 21 players would provide backup for the injured players.

The Stars technical team and three local players - goalkeeper Joseph Addo, Vincent Atinga and Isaac Twum - were due to travel to Kenya last night for a three-day preparation prior to Saturday’s game.

The local component of the team will be joined by their foreign-based counterparts for a two-day training and acclimatisation, before emplaning to Uganda on Thursday to finalise preparations for the destiny-defining duel.

Before the Ghana-Uganda match, the Pharaohs of Egypt will play host to Congo in Alexandria on Friday.

Egypt top the group with nine points, followed by Uganda with seven points, while Ghana and Congo have five points and one point respectively.