Posted by Assistant Coach of the Black Meteors, Michael Osei is unconcerned about the absence of Southampton forward Kamaldeen Sulemana and Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer of Hamburger SV for the TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Morocco.
The two were handed call-up for the competition which kicked off on Saturday, June 24 and will run till Saturday, July 8, 2022. However, they failed to honor the call up without any parent reason revealed.
Despite the absence of the duo, Michael Osei is confident his outfit will achieve their goals at the competition.
“We don’t have to worry soo much about the absence of Kamaldeen Sulemana and Ransford-Yeboah Königsdörffer, especially the technical team. It could be that, the two players are injured in your team as coaches we are ready to prepare the other players mentality and technically well and make a positive impact on the field. We played without them during the qualifiers and we will not be perturbed with their absence rather stay focus on the assignment”, He told Kumasi-based outfit Subanpa FM in an interview.
“Without them, we should be able to perform, the other players would have to show they are ready and with the quality, it’s fine.
“The technical staff would have being happy to have them but we have to do it without them,” he added.
Ghana will keep off their campaign against Congo on Sunday, June 25, 2023, before facing Morocco on Tuesday, June 27 and then Guinea on Friday, June 30.
The Black Meteors are poised to sail through the Group stage to the semis as they target one of the three automatic slots to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The last time Ghana participated in the Olympic Games Men’s Soccer event was in 2004 in Athens.