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Ghana’s Injury Woes The Ghana Black Stars, one of the strong contenders to the Cup of Nations trophy in Angola, is plagued by a number of injuries and, unless something extraordinary happens, their dreams of winning their 5th title will remain an illusion. The team’s experienced captain, Stephen Appiah of Bologna, Italy, was the first to be dropped. Later, his hardworking deputy, John Mensah of Sunderland, England, had to be sidelined as well for recurring injuries. Then about two weeks to the tournament, John Paintsil of Fulham, the defence player who was voted by Ghanaian journalists as player of the year, twisted his knee in a match against Chelsea. Meanwhile Laryea Kingston of Hearts, Scotland, will also miss the Orange Cup of Nations due to injury related problems. Another player that Coach Milovan Rajevac would have relied on, Sulley Muntari of Inter Milan, Italy, will also not be in Angola not due to injuries but to disciplinary problems that compelled the coach to delete his name from his squad. Coach Rajevac’s solution to this injury headache is to fall on a number of players that helped Ghana to win the U-20 World Cup in Egypt last year. They include goalkeeper Daniel Agyei, Samuel Inkoom, Jonathan Mensah, Emmanuel Agyemang Badu, Opoku Agyemang, Dominic Adiyiah and Ransford Osei. With this development, analysts find it difficult to predict Ghana’s chances in this tournament. It is recalled that although Ghana did well in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Africa Cup of Nations that preceded the global event was a nightmare for the West African lads. Michael Essien, Sulley Muntari and Asamoah Gyan missed the continental tournament allegedly because of injury problems. If history is going to repeat itself, then Coach Milovan is in for a disaster. On the other hand he could turn his misfortunes into blessings as was the case during the World Cup qualifying matches when Muntari and Gyan did not show up but he relied on some unknown names to win all his matches, both home and away.
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