Milovan confident despite Essien's absence

Black Stars coach, Milovan Rajevac, remains confident of presenting a strong starting line up for Ghana's crucial 2010 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho on Saturday.

The team commenced training for the final Group 5 game in Accra on Monday minus one of the Serbian's key players, Michael Essien, who has picked up an injury.

Despite the Chelsea midfielder's absence, which the coach admits as a big blow, Milovan Rajevac says other solutions would be found.

“It is a big loss but we must play with the players we have. He is a very important player and we will miss him but we will try to find some other solutions,” the coach told www.ghanafa.org.

The Serbian said he would use the team's training sessions to assess his players including captain, Stephen Appiah, who made a return to the squad in the last game against Libya after a long layoff due to injury.

“We will have about five days training and I will assess all the players including Stephen Appiah about their condition and readiness for the game and make a decision on them.”

Ghana must record a high scoring win at the Essipong Sports Stadium at Sekondi to reach the second phase of the qualifiers.