AFCON 2025Q: Eight players withdraw from Ghana’s squad for Angola, Niger games
Ghana coach Otto Addo’s plans for the AFCON 2025 Qualifiers have been thrown in disarray after nearly half of the invited players withdrew from the squad.
Antoine Semenyo, Inaki Williams, Jonas Adjetey, Tariq Lamptey, Jerome Opoku, Alexander Djiku, Ibrahim Osman, and Joseph Painstil have all withdrawn from this month’s qualifiers against Angola and Niger.
The following are the reasons for the withdrawal by the players in question.
Inaki Williams: Hamstring injury picked up on November 7 and has since not been able to train.
Tariq Lamptey: Calf discomfort that got aggravated last week and currently undergoing rehabilitation with his club.
Jonas Adjetey: Jonas was on his way to full recovery but had a setback in their last League game on Saturday, November 9, 2024.
Jerome Opoku: Chronic back pain which got worse during a Sper Lig game against Besiktas on Sunday, November 10. Jerome is currently undergoing rehabilitation with his club.
Antoine Semenyo: Nursing an injury of the patella tendon due to an overload of games. The Club medical team thought it wise to use the break to refer him to a tendon specialist to prevent the worsening of the injury.
Alexander Djiku: It’s an aggravation of an existing hamstring that got him substituted in their last game on Sunday, November 10, 2024.
Ibrahim Osman: He picked up a hamstring injury in his last outing for his club which got him substituted at half time.
Joseph Painstil: Personal
Ghana coach Otto Addo faces a race against time to assemble a team for the two matches. The practice in the past, has been to draw from Black Meteors, Ghana’s National Under 23 team.
One of such players, Terry Yegbe, has already been invited.
On Monday, the Elfsborg central defender enplaned to Ghana as one of the replacements, following Djiku and Jerome Opoku’s absence.
It is understood that other replacements have been lined-up by the technical team.
Ghana are scheduled to face Angola in Luanda on October 15, before playing Niger three days later, in Accra.