Stars to play in memory of Annan's mother

Anthony Annan

Ghana defender Samuel Inkoom says they will play next month's 2014 World Cup qualifiers to honour the mother of team-mate Anthony Annan who will be buried in June.

The Black Stars will play Lesotho and Zambia early next month and before joining Annan for the funeral of his mother on 16 and 17 June in Cape Coast.

Annan's mother, Sophia Sampson, died after a brief illness during February's Africa Cup of Nations and the midfielder stayed on to play in the competition in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

With the midfielder's mother set to be buried one week after the World Cup qualifier against Zambia in Ndola on 9 June, Inkoom says they will fight to honour 'our mother'.

“The two matches are very important for our country because we want to go to the 2014 World Cup,” Inkoom told Ghanafa.org.

“We will also want to win the matches so that the memory of our mother Sophia Sampson will stay long with us as she will be buried one week after the Zambia game.

“We will be there to support our brother Anthony Annan during the burial but we want to go there with positive memories and that is with good results from the matches against Lesotho and Zambia.”

The diminutive Annan started every match for the Black Stars in their march to the semi finals of this year's Nations Cup.

He is currently on loan at Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem from German Bundesliga outfit Schalke 04.