Ghana depleted for Nations Cup

Ghana will play without four key stars

Ghana has been presented a depleted squad for next week's African Cup of Nations after FOUR key Black Stars were left out because of injuries.

 
The four-time champions have presented a squad dominated by the country's U20 World Cup winning squad to the Confederation of African Football (Caf)

Deputy captain John Mensah was last player to be left out of the original squad named by coach Milovan Rajevac for the tournament in Angola on Thursday.

A day earlier another first-choice player John Pantsil opted out of the tournament because of a knee injury he suffered while playing for English side Fulham.

The Black Stars have been ravaged by injuries as key players Stephen Appiah and Laryea Kingston were already been ruled out of the tournament.

The fitness of Anthony Annan and Michael Essien is also in doubt as they would have just recovered from injuries when the tournament starts on 10 January.

Ghana will be relying on youngsters to fly its flag at the tournament where they face giants Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Togo in Group B.

Goalkeeper Daniel Agyei, Samuel Inkoom, Jonathan Mensah, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu, Opoku Agyemang, Dominic Adiyiah and Ransford Osei were all part of Ghana U20 World Cup winning team.

The Black Stars were among the favourites for the tournament but with the injury problems they have been reduced to mere also-rans for the tournament.

While there are doubts over the youngsters in the squad others think they can use their experiences to stun teams at the tournament.