The Ghana Football Association (GFA) has opened up on the decision to exclude Anderlecht midfielder Majeed Ashimeru from the Black Stars squad to battle Nigeria in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
According to the country's football governing body, the former WAFA midfielder couldn't make the squad because he was injured in the last minute.
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The midfielder’s exclusion from Otto Addo’s 27-man squad caused outrage on social media, with former Ghana captain, Asamoah Gyan describing it as nonsense.
But in a statement Tuesday evening, the GFA explained that Ashimeru, along with Antoine Semenyoh, Baba Abdul Rahman, Samuel Owusu, Richmond Boakye Yiadom and Kamaldeen Sulemana, was included in the initially squad before injury forced him and the others to pull out last minute.
“Team Doctors of the respective clubs of the players wrote and officially inform the GFA of their injury situations and confirmed their unavailability for the double-header against Nigeria,” the statement added.
Ashimeru played full 90mins on Sunday, March 20 for his club and the Black Stars list came out on Tuesday morning so it begss the quaestion at so at what point did the GFA knew was injured for them to make a replacement?
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The team arrived in Kumasi on Tuesday afternoon and held their first training at the Baba Yara Stadium later that evening.
Ghana will play the first leg in Kumasi on Friday March 25, 2022 in Kumasi with the return leg to be hosted in Abuja four days later.
The winner over two legs will book one of Africa’s five slots for the 2022 World Cup to be hosted in Qatar at the end of the year.